Ooooh Baby!

Well, we just got back from Disney. Every trip to Disney is always a reminder to me of why I dislike so many parents. It’s because there are so few of them. There are plenty of procreators – those people who have children without thought as to whether or not they actually have the mental and ethical capacity to then raise said children. You see a PARENT is one who actively parents the children they have. A parent molds the behavior and thoughts on their child’s “tabula rasa.”

There is no watching of children. There was a young boy of about 7-9 years of age running through Epcot yelling for his mother. He then stopped the boy walking in front of us who was approximately 8-10 years of age and said, “I can’t find mom.” The older boy merely shrugged. Neither seemed particularly disturbed. Do you think that, possibly, mom would consider suing Disney if her unattended-by-their-parent-children were to… say, trip and hurt themselves? Nah! She’d blame herself for not watching her kids that she so lovingly brought into this world. Right? You don’t think so? Me either!!

Then there is the extreme swing the other way. Seven year olds still being pushed in strollers. Girls as old as 12 coming out of the Bibity Bobity Boutique all princessified. And, my personal favorite, boys as old as 9… NINE… going into the ladies room with their mothers. no, No, NO!!! I don’t think so! Are you kidding me?? Please just kill me! Now, mind you, if any of these kids looked like they had special needs, I would not be so unremitting in my assessment. They all spoke properly and adequately for their age. They all walked and moved as well as I do. The “parents” are just creating large babies for their own personal need to feel needed. God forbid we create any form of independence.

Now, it might seem as though I’m making two dichotomous statements. In fact, I’m saying the same thing. The vast majority of “parents” are LAZY. They don’t want to think about what the appropriate amount of any behavior is. So, they just err on the side of what they think is caution and go to one extreme or the other. People either treat their children as small adults assuming they will know how to behave magically with little to no supervision of the child’s behavior, attitude or manners. When was the last time a kid – who was obviously old enough to know - said, “Excuse me” as he/she ploughed into you? When was the last time you saw a parent correct a child – who was obviously not old enough to know – before or after that child ploughed into you? OR People treat their children as endless babies who are never responsible for anything. They don’t actually teach them anything because they do everything for the child. All the kid learns is that adults are supposed to be there at their beck and call.

Now, I KNOW it’s not easy raising kids these days. I don’t need to have my own children to know that. I get it. All I’m saying is to use a little discretion before, during and after having the little buggers. If you do, your children will follow suit and then it will be a much better world to live in. It’s not about closing borders or opening them. It’s not about tax hikes or breaks. It’s not about the Dow going up or down. Making the world a better place is merely about realizing that it’s not all about you. It’s about knowing that you’re not here in a vacuum. Two-sides to every coin. Pros & cons and all that. Shouldn’t that be the biggest lesson we learn from being part of a family?

Finally, I’ll leave you with the best familial interchange I saw while at Disney. Ironically, it was on my last day there. Hubby and I were going for breakfast at one of the restaurants on Boardwalk. There was a family in front of us in line – mother, father and two children. The restaurant has a wall of bookcases that have bottles of wine stacked on the shelves. The little boy – who couldn’t have been more than 4 – toddles over to the bookcases and is, silently, looking at the bottles and reaching up for them. This, in and of itself, did not seem too out of the ordinary. Little kids like to touch things. It was the following comment that made me realize what was really going on. The father turns to his son and, in his best Bubba-esque drawl, says,

“Oh no buddy. That’s not beer. That there’s wine.”

Yep! Father of the year right there.

I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity

The post title is a quotation attributed to Tom Stoppard. He's the British dramatist and screenwriter who wrote, among other things, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". I must say that today, I agree with him whole-heartedly. I have officially had to succumb to my somewhat advancing years. You read me correctly. A mere 4 days into being age 41, I have found that I need...

READING GLASSES!!!!

That's right. I'm going cross-eyed trying to work on a pair of socks for my niece and had the bright idea to try my hubby's reading glasses. Of course, I tried them just KNOWING that they wouldn't help. I wouldn't be able to see any better and, in fact, they'd make it worse.

I was wrong.

I'm sure some of you are surprised by that, but it's true. I can see the socks better with the glasses. I am crushed. It's official. I am old!

Stuff, Junk & Whatnot

Hey all. Sorry I have been gone so long. Not that anyone regularly reads this blog. At least I realize that this is my own painfully pathetic attempt at getting attention and recognition. Whatev...

Anyway, been busy and stuff. Unfortunately, it hasn't been with crocheting. Very sad. I know. It just seems like I get very little time to do all I want to. I've been very addicted to Facebook lately. If any of you are on there, please feel free to find me and be my friend. I'm on that at least once a day.

I have completely ignored Ravelry and LinkdIn. I should really be on LinkdIn at least once a day in order to network for job finding purposes. Especially since it doesn't look like I'll be winning that Powerball any time soon.

I did manage to read a book. God knows that doesn't happen nearly as much as I'd like. I read this:
in just 2 days. That may not seem like a big deal to some of you but I was sneaking pages at work because I REALLY wanted to find out what was going to happen! I absolutely loved it and immediately bought the rest of the books in the series.

I also managed to make a little toy for the babies.

Cute, no? Ben has beat that thing to death. Jerry plays with it occasionally but Ben LOVES it. Well, I don't know if love is the right word. He loves pretending to hunt and kill it. I know. He's a charmer. Actually, it is really cute to watch him toss it up in the air with his mouth and bat it into the next room with his paw. If he had opposible thumbs and could hold a bat, the Red Sox might want him.

I've also been working on a pair of socks for the niece. This is my first pair of socks and I've kinda been stalling. I don't love working with the thin yarn. It makes me cross-eyed. They are coming cute. Check 'em out:

I'm using Berroco Comfort Sock in a real pretty, dark red. She'll wear these to school with her uniform.

Last weekend I organized the craft area downstairs. I just kinda threw stuff in the corner of the room when we moved and I finally got around to making look a bit better.

So, not only can I now get to all my supplies, I can actually sit at my table to work on stuff. Of course, this morning, the only one using the craft table was Ben who was sleeping in this little box that he likes to snack on.

Weird baby! Jerry just wanted a little spot in the sun.

Animal Cops RI

Well... Not exactly. But that's kinda how I feel right now. I just rescued a little kitty!

Where I work, we have a patio outside the kitchen. Yesterday I saw this sweet little black and white cat on the patio. When I went outside, she came right over to me and let me pet her. Beautiful face but filthy and the poor thing was skin and bones!! She had an injury on her neck like she'd been in a fight but the area looked shaved. My guess is that she had a home at one point and then they stopped caring for her for whatever reason?

One of my co-workers was out there eating lunch and told me that she had given the cat some of her pasta with meatballs. Not the best thing to give a cat but at least it was some food. When I saw pasta still in the plate, I commented that the cat must not have liked it. My co-worker told me that that was the 3rd helping that was sitting on that plate. The cat had eaten 2 helpings already. She must have been starving!

My heart broke but I have 2 healthy cats at home that I just adopted. I couldn't risk taking this doll home if she had something that my 2 boys could catch. Well, by the time I left work, she was gone. I decided that if she came back today that I would take her to the shelter where I got my boys.

Now, my co-worker also wanted to take her to her vet. That would have been fine with me. However, today, my co-worker was in a meeting and we were about to have a bit of an event on the patio. I figured before everyone was crowded out there scaring the cat off, I'd scoop her up and take her to the shelter. So, that's just what I did. She couldn't weigh more than 5 or 6 lbs. At any rate, I picked her up and took her in the car. I didn't have anything to put her in. I know, you're all gonna say that that was stupid but I'm used to driving with cats in the car that are not in carriers.

She didn't seem to like the car at first. She was literally running around the inside of the car. It was kinda funny to watch her... on the dash, in the passenger seat, on the back dash, on the floor, back on the dash. Finally, after about a minute and a half of this, she landed on my lap. She was about to take off again when she realized where she landed. She just curled up and started to purr. SOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!! She didn't budge the rest of the ride. I think she actually nodded off for a minute. When I got to the shelter, she wanted to run when I opened the car door but I scooped her up before she got out and told her everything would be okay now and she settled right into my arms again. She didn't even fuss when I put her into the cage at the shelter.

I can't imagine taking home another cat. Three cats in a 950 sq ft house is a bit much but I can't imagine letting her go to someone else either. I just kinda felt like those people who are on the Animal Cops show must feel. I feel like I gave her a chance at a decent life.

In case we never meet again... Good luck sweet baby. I hope you have a happy life!

Finally

Well, due to some horrible disease that I have contracted. I think it's a head cold but there's an awful lot of sneezing. Ragweed, maybe? At any rate, my feeling like crap yesterday gave me time to sit on the couch, never getting out of my jammies and finally getting to make some progress on the bed scarf I started a few months ago. Nothing exotic. Just a shell type stitch in a lovely Navy.

You might wonder why it took me all day to move just a few rows. Well, that would be because it's for a king size bed. It's a bit long. Each row is like umpteen million feet long. Well, that and Mama's little angel kept trying to eat and/or play with the TLC Essentials I'm making it with.

Doesn't he look sweet when he sleeps though?

And, finally, something fun. Why not give it a try yourself?

What Your Taste in Chocolate Says About You

You are sophisticated, modern, and high class. Your taste is refined, but you are not picky. You are often the first to try something new. You are a whimsical person prone to daydreaming. Artistic and creative, you're always in the middle of a project. While you are an inspiration to others, you can come off as flaky. You love to be the center of attention. You enjoy entertaining your friends. You feel lost when no one is interested in you... You're too interesting to be ignored.

The Chocolate Oracle

VENT!!

You know... People shouldn't give me a job to do and then expect that I won't give a shit about the work product that my name is going on! If you ask me to do something I'm going to make sure that I exceed expectations and I don't like flying blind either. You want me to run with something but then tie my hands behind my back by not giving me the rules... the parameters. That's just not fair. I have a feeling that this person is just looking for me to fall on my face because I am a strong-willed person. An intelligent person. A person who doesn't fall for their cutesy act and they know it. I'm pissed off and I won't tolerate being treated like this many more times. I'm a 40 year old woman not a 10 year old kid!

So the weekend was good. Kind of. Niece's party was swelling. I got to meet the beau. Cute. As non-communicative as one would expect a 16 year old boy to be toward a 40 year old woman. Lots of one word type stuff but he seemed nice. Her girlfriends are adorable. All-in-all, not a bad night. Niece was even able to bite her tongue when mom just couldn't resist making one of those "and if you don't keep up your grades you'll loose it" comments - in front of the kid's friends. The kid totally avoided the bait. My baby's growing up! The kid scored, btw. She got a new Palm Centro turquoise phone. That's quite the phone for a 14 yr old. Let's see if she actually uses 1/2 the features on that thing. Kid, if you read this... LEARN TO USE THE CALENDAR SO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU HAVE TO BE WHEN. She could also use the note/memo feature to make homework notes. Considering the kid starts high school in a few weeks, it might help. The young miss also got a laptop. Also beneficial for high school.

Springsteen delivered as always. We took the kid, as a matter of fact. Also took hubby's mother. The kid was pleasantly surprized by the antics and musical talent of a 50-something. After all, no one over the age of 20 even knows what music is... Right? ;-P Her favorite song of the evening was Spirit in the Night. Good choice. It's no Candy's Room mind you but it is a great tune.

Needless to say, having to drive from one end of the state to the other two nights in a row, resulted in my getting only 7 hours sleep between 2 nights. This is not enough for me. I need more and I was feeling the effects Sunday. It kinda sucked. I spent a couple of hours at the market purchasing healthy food for the diet I've put hubby and I on. We're like... extra-fat now! This is just not acceptable. I'm trying that Glycemic Index diet thingie. We'll see how that goes. I'm a little pissed because I haven't had 15 seconds to do any crocheting the past week. After all that inspiration I picked up at the conference, it's doubly disappointing.

Tomorrow I get to take my car to the shop! Yay! Stupid thing is making so much noise. It's absolutely deafening. Weird thing is that you only really hear it when the windows are shut. I'm just worried that this going to end up costing me a small fortune.

Well, I'm exhausted and I still have to read eleventeen million blogs before bed so I will chat ya when I can.

Later

CGOA Website and Miscellany

Hey there! I probably won't be posting every single day but I'm going to do my best to at least post once a week. Today is just give an FYI and ask a favor.

The FYI:
I just wanted to let you know that I'll be busy this weekend so don't expect to see anything until Sunday. Friday night is my niece's b-day party. Saturday night we have a Springsteen concert at Gillette Stadium. Both should be fun but I'll be very busy the next few days.

The favor:
For anyone who's in the CGOA or is a crocheter who has tried to make use of the www.crochet.org website but has navigated away scratching their head, PLEASE take a moment to leave a comment here and let me know what your issues with the website were. I have been asked to take a look at the site so that we can make improvements because it has come to the Board's attention that many of you are flummoxed when trying to navigate it. I've been looking at it and making some notes but I'd like to hear what you guys think so I can make sure my list is as complete as possible before sending it off to the rest of the Board and Offinger. I can't promise that we'll fix every issue because, as everyone knows, everything costs money and we might not have enough to do everything but at least I can let them know what seems to be most perplexing to the majority of people.

Peace out homies!

My first post

This was my first ever Knit and Crochet Show. This is what I got in my gift bag:
along with about 300 patterns and yarn catalogs. Here are pictures of the commemorative hook and the CGOA pin that I ordered:


It was also my first real CGOA board meeting. Real meaning that everyone was up close and in person as opposed to being on the phone which is how we usually have meetings. Now I have faces to go with the names. I also know that Treva (who is absolutely gorgeous AND has shampoo commercial hair btw for those of you who have never seen her) has my fingerprints on a piece of tape from when I helped her box up the design contest entries for shipping. So, now she totally has me over a barrel and I can never ever piss her off for fear that she will leave my prints at a crime scene. You know how those sweet southern women can be. Lol Can you actually do that with a piece of tape? Somebody call MythBusters. Anyway…

More board type info – I found out that I was, in essence, nominated because of my “hobbyist” status. Evidently, I am to represent the Jane/Joe Average Crocheter with the board. I felt so – Evita – when I heard that. “Don’t cry for me CGOA crocheters.” Board meetings, in case anyone is wondering, are fun (if you have a mild sadistic streak, which I do – insert evil laughter here), intimidating (if you let it cross your mind for even a split second that these are the people you have crochet hero worship for – thank God I don’t intimidate easily) and stressful (if you take it seriously and, believe me, I do). I asked so many questions that I’m sure the elder members were sick of hearing me talk. After all, they entrusted me with a responsibility and I was gonna make darn tootin’ sure I had all the info I needed to make the best decision possible for CGOA and its members.

Now onto the classes… I took 4. The first was Crochet by the Numbers with Marty Miller. Fabu! Marty is totally cool, very “matter-of-fact” and her ideas were very interesting and useful. She even made this mathophobe start to think that math could be cool and useful. Who knew?
Afterwards, Vashti (who, believe it or not, is actually not a Hindu princess) came to find me and the 3 of us went to lunch. Many many thanks to Vashti for letting me cling onto her. I have all the confidence in the world to voice my opinion but no guts whatsoever to introduce myself to people. Strange dichotomy, no? I totally want to adopt Vashti as my soul-sister although she’s sooooo much cooler and cuter than I am.

My second class was Karen Klemp’s Half-Double Happiness. To those of you who don’t like the half-double, all I can say is, you don’t know what you’re missing! Karen was totally sweet and has such a calmness about her. She could so have a job as a hypnotist or something because she just puts you at ease.

The third class was Pushmi/Pullyu by Dee Stanziano. SO cool! Really interesting ways of thinking of how to do stitches. Now, I must make a confession. On her website, Dee always struck me as being a bit of a goody-goody. Not my bag as I tend toward… let’s call it the irreverent side of the spectrum. She’s just adorable! She’s teeny-weeny and just so full of life and enthusiasm and IT’S TOTALLY SINCERE! She gets 2 thumbs up from me.

The last class was Lily Chin’s Crochet Tips, Tricks and Hints. Definitely full of useful information but might be a tad over the head of a beginner.

I can’t even begin to go into all the people I met. Mostly thanks to Vashti. She made sure I made the rounds. In addition to those I have mentioned above, I met:
Doris Chan has more personality in that little body of hers than anyone I’ve ever met. Drew Emborsky is as adorable in person as one might assume he’d be. He’s a great person to drink too much caffeine and laugh with. Carol Alexander is so elegant and refined that she could teach the Queen of England a thing or two about dignity. Amazingly, she also manages to be really approachable. Rita Weiss and Jean Leinhauser are truly forces to be reckoned with. They are women who will go down in history as being pioneers not just for the needlearts but also for women in general. Gloria Tracey – understated and humble. Jane Swartz could make anyone feel cozy and at home no matter where they are. I know I’m leaving people out but my brain is fried and I can’t remember any more names.

The marketplace was very cool! Lots of yummy gourmet yarns but it was really difficult to navigate around the wools which give me the itchies. I did manage to find two booths that had discounted coolness. While in my 2nd class, I noticed that my hook case had 3 holes in it! Well, I just had to buy this nifty case from Yarn Bazaar to replace it:

Then I found this great linen/nylon blend at Charlotte's Web for just 37.50 for a bag of 10 balls. Just had to have it in these two lovely shades of purple and grey:

Then there was this beautiful cotton/acrylic varigated I got from Discontinuted Name Brand Yarns for only $19.99 for a bag of 10 balls so I just had to buy the only 2 bags they had left:

Finally, Adirondack Yarns had this really interesting chunky acrylic that I just couldn't resist:
However, I could not find the two pattern books that I really wanted, so, of course, I had to order those from Amazon the day I got back. Couture Crochet by Lily Chin and Everyday Crochet by Doris Chan. I can't wait for them to arrive.

The fashion show on Saturday night was really inspiring. I know there are pictures all over the place and many have commented so I will just say that Patricia Williams is my new hero. She won the grand prize in the design contest for her crocheted wedding dress which was modeled at the fashion show. What was cool about it was that it didn’t have that “country bumpkin” look that so many of the crocheted wedding dresses have. Don’t misunderstand me, that’s cute and all but it’s not for everyone. This dress could easily be worn by the most prominent Manhattan socialite as well as any fashion forward bride no matter where she’s from.

Now, a note on Offinger... I’ve heard many people complain about the management company in the past. Those people WORK THEIR BUTTS OFF! I don’t want to ever hear anyone trash talk them again. They might not be perfect but they are hard working and they totally deserve our respect for that.