Thanks One and All

I've been remiss in issuing many Thank You's to several different people...

We live near the library in HR, CO and the library has a huge, beautiful, open, grassy amphitheater behind it. It has a sizeable stage and we've discovered that they have a free summer concert series. They kicked off this summer with the Denver Youth Ballet doing A Midsummer's Night Dream. It's been about 13 years since I've seen a live ballet and I made Dave and the boys come with me.

Now I understand that with an outdoor concert the rules of concert etiquette are a bit more lax but I just really want to thank the lady in front of us for yammering at full voice for the entire ballet. Oh and Lady, when you let your phone ring for ten or so rings before finally answering and having an entire conversation? Wow, that was awesome. Oh, oh! And when you're friends that called you showed up halfway through the performance and started screeching at the top of their lungs - "WOW I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN AAAAAAGES!!!!!" - well, that just made the performance so much more special for everyone around you. So.... Thanks!

(When those screechy women showed up, even Dave was all, "Jesus Christ, Really??" Also, Lady, at one point, my nine year old asked, "Mom, can I go ask her to be quiet?" I told him no but I also told him that if Daddy wasn't there, I certainly would say something to her. So thanks also for letting him realize that at nine years old, he has better sense and more manners then a woman your age. Sheesh!)



Dear Random Neighbor,
I would like to thank you for teaching my cat a lesson. I know you know there are no leash laws for cats and I'm sure you've seen the four or five cats being allowed to roam the neighborhood at will, our Oreo being one of them. I appreciate that you don't want them in your area and you should absolutely spray them in the head to keep them out of your space.

However, may I suggest that next time you use a squirt bottle full of water instead of bug spray? It would be much cheaper and equally effective. I say cheaper because I imagine water is cheaper then bug spray but also because I believe it would save us both quite a lot of money in other areas. It would save you some serious hospital bills and it would save me some, I imagine, very expensive lawyer fees keeping me out of jail for having put you in the hospital if I ever find out who you are.

Special thanks goes out to From Robin's Nest in Utah. We had such a lovely conversation last year and you seemed so funny and pleasant that I went ahead and shipped the first order of my Stitch Savers for your shop without getting paid up front. I want to thank you for reminding me why I changed that policy as I'm still awaiting payment from you. I've emailed and called several times and even pm'd you on Ravelry - all with no response. The last time we spoke was about a month after I mailed them (last September) and you said you received them and would mail payment but since then you've just ignored my attempts to resolve this issue. It makes me sad but it also reminds me that not all knitters have basic manners and integrity.

(Readers, if you shop there, please continue to do so as she obviously needs the money. However, I do ask that you not buy my Stitch Savers there as she hasn't yet paid me for them. If she ever does, I'll let y'all know and then you can buy them from her locally! Otherwise, if you'd like some, please purchase them elsewhere. You can always get them from my Etsy store, ScoutSwag, The Loopy Ewe, Yarn4Socks, and many other fine LYS's both online and IRL.)

Now for some very real and belated Thank-you's....

Thank you to my Secret Pal 15 for this lovely little package!

I know I still need to put up my questionnaire for SP15 and I'll do that soon - promise!


Thanks to Joe over at ReviewYourOwnBlog for posting my review. It's a very interesting concept! You're to write an objective review of your own blog. A lot harder then it sounds! Here's mine.

Thanks so much to Mary from my knitting group for the outstanding package she mailed me for the Beltane Vampire Swap. (I still think it's funny that you mailed it from Parker, CO to.... Parker, CO - hah!)

Look at all the goodies!
First there's the first two books of this series I've been dying to read...

I'm loving the first one and can't wait to get to the second!


There was a lovely handmade card and some much needed 24" cables for my Options set....



She crocheted a measuring tape cover and a sweet little Nosferatau....


She made scads of these really pretty stitch markers...

And the yarn! Oooooh, the yarn....

That's a skein of Malabrigo sock on the bottom and a skein of some sock yarn she dyed for me! Droool.....
Here's a close-up (if somewhat overexposed) pic of it...

I'm in love!


Lastly....
I want to give an extra big hug and thank you to the woman I glared at in the Sports Authority parking lot last week. I was in a huge hurry, with too much stress, too many errands to run that day and not enough time. I felt you weren't moving fast enough to get your clearly-old-enough-to-do-it-himself child out of your car. It wasn't until you helped him out that I realized he has CP and I'm so very, very, sorry that I was such a shit. Thank you so much for giving me some much needed perspective not only on my day but on my life in general.

Don't forget to enter my latest contest!


Feeling thankful for my life, Ruth!

Community

There's this ranch just up the street from our development. They have a big, life-sized cow sculpture in their front pasture. It's a lovely thing, painted in swirls of sherbet colors. Every time we'd pass it the whole family would say, "Colorful Cow, Colorful Cow".

The owners put up lights around it so you could see it when you drove by at night. Last Xmas, they put colorful lights all around it. At Easter time, they put a bunny mask on it's face, a HUGE basket of colorful eggs and some enormous single eggs around it.

A few months ago, I was driving into town and was horrified to see that some asshole had graffiti'd it. Not just a little bit, either - the entire side facing away from the owner's home was black. It was devastating. This simple thing that brought so much happiness to my little boys and to many others in this community was thoughtlessly, maliciously defaced for no discernible reason.

There was a general uproar in the community and even one of the Denver news stations came out and did a story on it. (You can see the before pic's and the story here.)

It's my understanding that many people offered to help fix our town's cow. The owners often found money had been left anonymously in their mailbox. People loved that cow.

Well, on Saturday, the boys and I went to this...

About 30 people turned out initially, with a few more trickling in here and there. Here's a picture of the mayor (in the hat) and to his left are Mark and Rachel H. (of me7of11)...

They served grilled hot dogs, cookies, soda, cider, chips, and other goodies. You could see the owner's humor in this iron art over their porch swing...

Their open house was from 2-4p. At about 2:30, we all made our way out to the cow for the grand unveiling. As we all walked over to the front pasture, cars passing by were honking and waving and cheering.


The owner gave a little speech about the community and the outpouring of generosity and support and offers to help out and how touched they were about it all. The original artist was there as well (pictured here, artist in white jacket with the owners to her left)...

The artist works part-time at Home Depot and asked the manager for help. Home Depot donated the paint to fix it. The cow was hauled there, where they color matched the paint on the good side. Later, there was a party where many of the local children got to help paint it. The owner said what a wonderful thing it was to have some Parker children help fix what some other Parker children had tried to destroy.

The mayor said a few words as well, then they had the unveiling and everyone got to go in for touching and looking and pictures.

Later I took the boys out there alone to get some pic's with them and the cow.

Here you can see where there's still some graffiti remnants on the base...

I love this town. I don't think I've ever lived in a place that would pull together and help out like I've seen here.

Parker, Colorado. Come for the cow, stay for the community.

Happy Holidays Everyone, Ruth!

Self-Pity and Gratitude

Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes to my brother. You guys are great!

Have you ever had a crappy day and your life may not be where you want it to be and your feeling all sorry for yourself and then you see something that makes you realize you're just a big, stupid baby and you've actually got it really good?

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Rachel was having a really shitty day, car was giving out (again), big fight with husband, car died and because of big fight she calls friend to help her instead. I showed up with caffeine and chocolate (I used to have a car that never worked and always chose the worst moments to break hard, so I knew how she was feeling) and it took a couple hours but we got her car where it needed to be (mechanic). On the way there, following her, we were at a stop sign and next to my van was a big truck. Driving the truck was a woman with a bald head and two shunts (one in her neck and one behind her ear). I thought, "This is a shitty day but DAMN this is a good day!" (By the way, Rachel was not being a big, stupid baby that day, I'm talking about me and my mood yesterday.)

So my mood yesterday. And lately. Poor pitiful me. blah,blah,blah. Then I read Cara's blog today and some links. Annie Modesitt's husband has been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma . I'm a baby. Things here are just fine. She's come up with a beautiful pattern (does she have any other kind?) to raise money to help with expenses. Give and give big.

My husband worked on golf courses for 15 years. Since we married, he goes to the dermatologist every 6 months to get sketchy things burned off. I live in fear of the day when they find one that a little burn-off won't fix. His dermatologist told him he needed to change careers. That's what started our quest for a new location/job. (Not that FedEx driver has him in the sun any less!)

About ten years ago, I was really bummed with my life. I had no plan and had just moved to Tucson from Ft. Huachuca, so all my friends were an hour and a half away. I had a job that was fun, was too easy, made tons of cash (legally), and yet wasn't really something you told people you did when first meeting them (lots of misconceptions). (We'll talk about that job another day.) I hated Tucson, hated the area of town I'd moved to and was really depressed.

Then I read a book. The book was called "Children of the Flames". It's about the twins at Auschwitz and the experiments done on them by Josef Mengele. It's non-fiction, told by the actual survivors. I realized how easy I had things and I pulled my head out of my ass and started making a plan. I still have that book. Whenever I get like I've been feeling I go and look at it. Especially the part where two of the boys (brothers) finally make it home after Liberation and there's no home left. They were the only survivors in their entire city.

I'm grateful. I'm grateful for my family (my mom and my brother and my dad) and I'm even more grateful for my family...

Everything is A-ok.

Going to go pull my head out, Ruth!

Gratitude

OK, not much sleep last nite. Again. Here's a little ditty I've been pondering over since I started this blog.

Giving thanks where it is due.

First and foremost, I want to thank Lisa L. for teaching me to knit. And purl. And bind off. And thanks to Tracy (the guru) for putting up with my idea of a lesson (I want to learn this, this, and this. OK, GO!)

I'd like to thank all the people who've read my blog and taken the time to comment. I've been told about something called Haloscan where you can get emails so you can thank them personally but I haven't had time to figure it out yet.

I want to thank Rachel, my friend here in CO. She is there when I need to talk and understands the yarn obsession so doesn't get too bored with that. And recently, she took the boys and her daughter (Morgan) to an Earth Day event at the museum so Dave and I could have a date on our anniversary. Here's a couple of pic's of the boys when they came home and a copy of the email she sent me later telling me what a good time they had.

"I keep thinking of Davis and I'm cracking up. He was so funny yesterday--the child had a BLAST! We're at the reptile demonstration thing and it's pretty much over, all the kids are petting the snakes and the lizard. Davie is down on his knees next to the lady with the lizard and she is telling him that the lizard is real. He points to the lizard's cheek, "Okay, but this is fake." Lady says, "No. That's real." So Davis points to the leg, "Well, is this fake?" Lady says, "Nope, that's real, too." Davis points to the other leg, "Well how about this part...is this part fake?" This went on and on for about 10 minutes. The lady was cracking up.

I have a good one for Trevor, too. We're on on way home and Morgan is whining for food, "I'm so hungry...my head hurts and I'm hungry...I need food...I'm so hungry!" Trevor turns to Morgan and says, "You know, if you head hurts real bad, you could die!" All in all, a good time was had by all...and Morgan did not die. " - Rachel's email.

I will express my gratitude through food. If you were all here, I'd even serve it to you!

I call this recipe Bunko Pasta. I was in a bunko group for about a year. In that year, this is the only truly memorable dish that was served. It is not figure friendly or terribly time efficient but it is. So. Tasty. It also makes enough to feed a small army, but you can easily halve the recipe.

Bunko Pasta

1 lb. penne pasta (cooked), 2 jars pasta sauce, 1 onion (chopped and sauteed), 1 lb. Italian sausage (we use sweet/mild) cooked, 6 oz. Provolone (sliced), 1 1/2 cups sour cream, 6 oz. shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan.

Combine sauce, onion and sausage and warm (I cook the sausage and onion at the same time, then drain). In 9 X 13" pan baking dish, layer: 1/2 pasta, all the provolone, spread w/sour cream, 1/2 the sauce mixture, rest of the pasta, the mozzarella, rest of the sauce, top w/parmesan. Bake 30 minutes (covered) at 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

Here's some other tidbits. If you are even remotely in the area, the Purls on Oracle in Tucson is closing. Here's the details of the sale:

Sale begins April 30th at the Oracle Store ONLY!
Look for HUGE Reductions
Single patterns $1.00
Magazines 50% off
Pattern Books 50% off

4/30 - 5/5 = 25% OFF
5/7 - 5/12 = 30% OFF
5/14 - 5/19 = 35% OFF
5/21 - 5/26 = 40% OFF
As of 5/28 everything will be 50% OFF

ALL SALES WILL BE FINAL!
Oracle stock ONLY!
No store transfers.
No Special Orders.
All merchandise in "as is" condition.
No "hold" or layaways.

Pretty sweet, no? If you are making a day trip of it and want a list of amazing restaurants, let me know!

Here's my last tidbits. These are links to the news items about the Yarn Harlot's trip to Denver.

News item I'm in the 44th second of the video, on the far left. And here's her interview.

Ever thankful, Ruth!