My Middle Name is Patience

"The Vision of a World Made New"

Nannie Helen Burroughs invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak * at the Women's Convention Auxiliary, National Baptist Convention in September 1954.

 

*PDF file. Click on the arrows rather than try to scroll.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Her Royal Majesty, Queen Hezekiah, wishes to extend her heartfelt hope that all her subjects have a healthy and joyful New Year. 

Her Private Secretary has made a number of resolutions this year that include finishing more projects, focusing, being more "in the moment" (Typepad wants to correct moment to money....) and exercising (she'll take moving more). 

There's a great picture of Hez to be added when I have access to my pictures on a computer and not the phone. Mobile app FAIL. Mind you, no wifi here.

Sadly this conflicts with Her Majesty's desire to be an unmovable lapcat.

*My Kingdom Has Been Returned to Me!

AT LONG LAST! an FO!

Finished kniting the garter stitch collar last Friday night and tried it on - it fits! Modeling it (proudly) for my mother, who gasped "That's amazing!"

Er....wha'? Was it because I actually finished something?

No.

It's because she's been watching me knit that combination of colors in sort of a fascinated horror for the last couple of years and seemed shocked that she liked it.

Let's see if she tries to borrow it.

 

 

I've been reading "Small Talk" by Harold Nicolson

Perusing the shelves at the library, as is my wont, a hardback caught my eye. Small, somewhat inconspicuous, it was noticeably different in that the library call number and author's las name was written (not typed) on the spine. Too cool.

It was written in 1937 (the year my parents were born) and is a series of essays that the author's note advised has been published previously in Good Housekeeping, Nash's Magazine, Vanity Fair, Harper's Magazine, The Listener, Oxford, Britannia & Eve, The Queen, The Graphic and The Radio Times. Some of those periodicals are around, some are long gone and some I've never heard of, presumably because a) I'm not that old or b) they were published in England.

It's vastly amusing to see how different and how similar the world is now. He grew up at the tag end of the Edwardian age and is being schooled by his children - a product of the Great Wars.

Checking some reference, I discovered in Wikipedia that Harold Nicolson was the husband of Vita Sackville-West, who was also the lover of Virginia Woolf.

*"My Kingdom has been returned to me! I have long prayed for this day to come."

"

 

"And now I want to know - who got rid of the fluffy pillow fake snow and replaced it with this overgrown doily? And WTH is with the pointy picket fence?  It's not like it's real snow.

Also, there is too much stuff. I can lie down, in fact, I must, but I'm telling you. I am NOT comfortable. Harumph."

Please. Wear Sunglasses. For Your Own Safety

I've been knitting:

Wow. The red and orange are slightly less bright than that.

 

My mother seems to find me oddly unhelpful today.

I've been frogging too: (picture)

Ummmm. No.

 

My eyes! My eyes! Still no. (picture. One of these days I'll figure out placement.)

 

If I hadn't shortened the fronts, I'd run a zipper up it and be done with it (well, a bit of a collar). But... it's wool. Maybe I won't ever wash it.

Speaking of collar:

(Wow. I can hunt with Angie and I don't even need to buy a hunting jacket!)

But the checkered collar isn't that bad (well, it isn't that bad if you're not looking at it with a camera flash, pinky swear).( I think.) Still. Probably a garter stitch shawl collar. 

Oddly enough, I've cast on something gray. A lovely soothing gray. Rib/stockinette.

READING: I have no books checked out from the library or on hold. For the first time in ages.

I took back two books unread and The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey with the last fifty pages to go. It was a cute book, an interesting enough twist on both the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella stories but it would. just. not. end. Still, it's a fun read so I'm recommending it. It's me. It took me forever to read Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard (my first Vonnegut!) Interesting that some found it a feminist book but I suppose. I liked the conceit that it was an autobiography of an abstract artist - I tend to agree with his mentor - the closer it looks to a photograph, the more impressive I find it. It was slightly unnerving to agree with him about the younger generation. 

Now I'm reading the substantive changes and additions of 1120's and The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does this make my butt look big?

Oodles of Woodles!

Woodle Orange Tomato seeds from Cabled Sheep, that is! I can't wait for the next tomato season to check them out. Woot!! Thanks, Cheryl!

I've got oodles of candy left over too, (UPDATE: today, 11/8/11, there is still candy!! It's a Halloween miracle!)  but we did have a pretty good turnout this year. Well, compared to last years count of NONE. Maybe 30 to 50 kids? They started a bit after 6pm and the last one came to the door at 7:30. I didn't even shut the light out until 8:30, just in case. (At 8:30, DWTS started and All Outside Distractions Cease.) Lots of little ones in cute costumes. I had maybe four that were middle school age, I think.

I'd show you knitting but basically still the same. Not that I haven't been knitting, but I've been knitting, tinking and frogging at about the same rate. So far, not casting on. But it's cold. And I'm tempted.

Is anyone watching Terra Nova? I managed to watch the second episode first so I was unclear on why Jason O'Mara's character had been in prison and how he got to Terra Nova, much less the rest of the relationships but I was distracted by the complete incompetence of the camp's population. They're attacked in the public plaza by prehistoric birds and they scatter like....birdseed? Did no one drill them? You'd think that it might have occurred to say......EVERYONE that things could go horribly wrong. Other than his abs, it hasn't gotten much better. He raced through a line of people, and guards, wearing a backpack and no one manage to stop him? I wanted to trip him just because he was taking cuts. 

Watch Dancing With The Stars instead. And vote for J.R. Or Ricky, since I drew her in the pool. I like her, I even like Derek again, but JR is amazing.

Grimm wasn't all that impressive either. Maybe it was the Jagermeister Bears. Once Upon A Time started out a bit silly (and probably still is) but I like it. I won't tell you how long it took me to figure out where I knew Emma from.

 

 

 

2nd Annual NMO Fundraiser (Neuromyelitis Optica)

Stacey of Purling Dervish is hosting the 2nd Annual NMO Fundraiser. 

2nd Annual NMO Fundraiser

October 1, 2011 – October 31, 2011

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO or Devic’s Disease) is an uncommon disease syndrome of the central nervous system (CNS) that affects the optic nerves and spinal cord. Individuals with NMO develop optic neuritis, which causes pain in the eye and vision loss, and transverse myelitis, which causes weakness, numbness, and sometimes paralysis of the arms and legs, along with sensory disturbances and loss of bladder and bowel control. ~From The National Institute of Neurological Disorders

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 

This is Stacy's story: "In late 2008, after losing 75% of my eyesight in my right eye, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I began treatment, recovered most of the vision and went on with life. In August of 2009, I awoke one morning and could not see at all out of my right eye. After unsuccessful treatment, my neurologist referred me to UTSW. On October 13^th of that year,  I was diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica. This past August, I had another instance of losing my sight.  That’s when I decided to make my little fundraiser a yearly thing."

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

The Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation is dedicated to funding basic science research to find answers that will lead to the prevention, clinical treatment programs and a potential cure for Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) Spectrum Disease. ~About Us, Guthy-Jackson website

They get scientists together to share information. They bring patients together with the experts and with each other.  They provide a place for doctors unfamiliar with this disease to get information and contacts. They collaborated with The Accelerated Cure Project to set up a biorepository for researchers to use.

One of the awesome things about this foundation is that they dedicate 100% of all funding gifts to basic science research centers. That’s right, 100%. When you donate by paypal, the foundation even makes up the fees so your full donation can go to research.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

You can donate online by clicking here or by check (more info further down)

• If you donate online, you must put Stacey Pope in the message section or she won’t know how many entries to give you.
• For every $10 donated, you will receive one entry in her drawing.
• If you share about the contest on your blog or other networking site, leave Stacey your link and you’ll receive one entry.
• As of 10/1/2011, there are 6 prizes.  The grand prize has a retail value of $500.  Go check them out here.
• All  online donations must be made by 9 a.m. PT on 10/31/11.
• Drawing will be held on 11/1/11 at 5p.m. CT

Picture cribbed without permission (yet) from Redshirt Knitting. If you don't donate, the puppy will cry.

(If permission gets denied, you're *gonna get the Glare of Recrimination from Hez as a replacement.

*Read a really interesting take on "gonna" in Guy Deutscher's book, "The Unfolding of Language" over the weekend.)

 

WHERE DOES EXCEL LIVE? I WANT TO.......

well, do something bad. It cannot be impossible to take one number and subtract a set of other numbers from it to come up with say......NET PAY, for example. 

Not that I actually NEED to do this in Excel but at this point, I MUST. Or Excel WINS. No problem with adding multiple worksheets together but substracting five cells from the first is defeating me. I could add a column but I shouldn't HAVE to.

See how upset I am? CAPS. And italics, for pity's sake. And this is after a weekend where my hero left me a decapitated rat under the cherry blossom tree. (Hint to Tony: I would actually prefer flowers or even chocolates.)(Also I'm assuming that he dragged the rat from parts unknown. And far away.) 

In knitting news, I'm almost done with one sleeve of my stash cardigan. The colors are still blindingly ugly but endearingly so. At least to me. No one recoiled in the waiting room today but I live in hope.

So. Since I'm almost done, can I cast this on? Ah! Doesn't she look very Miss Manners? That's who she reminded me of!

No picture. Unless you want to see the decapitated rat, because I actually do have a picture. He was so very, very proud of it.

Hez is doing really, really well, she's almost back to her old self.

 

 

 

Deadlines. Disease. Disaster. Averted. For now.

Somehow, I've got it in my head that going to the worst possible scenario somehow stops it from happening. However, so far it is working and why play with fate? Therefore I've saved my mother and my cat's life, not that they're grateful.  Ah, family.

I don't know how people have children. You all must be out of your minds with worry.

Mom seems to be on the mend but she was pretty precarious. [edited so that she won't kill me for posting it]

My poor Hezekiah limped into the house Friday night with her back right leg tucked up and at a twisted angle. Her vet thought that her knee cap was torn (which is what the X-rays looked like) and sent me to a veterinary surgeon.

Thankfully while the surgeon manipulated her hip, it popped back in place and   she was able to rule out all but one tendon in the knee. House arrest bedrest has been prescribed for three weeks.  I do believe her days as an indoor/outdoor cat are over. I don't know if a car hit her, some psychopath kicked her, she tangled with Tony or a dog (she's pretty fierce)  or if she was writing checks her 13ish body couldn't cash but I do know that I would rather have her annoyed and safe.

In between all that I had deadlines and meetings and I read a couple of good books. The Sentry, a Joe Pike novel by Robert Crais and Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer. What could be more compatible? Tough silent Joe Pike and the black sheep Miles Caverleigh go together like a horse and carriage. Between them, they're My Guy.

KNITTING: my ancient Sugar Scallop WIP hit a wall again. I don't have enough yarn to knit the sweater I want. On the plus side, while waiting and wondering, I managed to whipstitch my Tailored Jacket's body together. Remind me. Five pieces for the body is TOO MANY PIECES. It'll fit though. I'd forgotten that I'd oversized it to felt a bit.

 

 

 

Hullo, D.E.A.R.

 Isn't every day DEAR? It is in my world, unless it's DEAK, which, admittedly, doesn't have the same impact.  In the spirit of DEAR, (which I accidentally stumbled across this morning in search of a cardigan with a ruffled buttonband I saw on Knitting Daily), my latest reads.

September 6, Drop Everything And Read day. (Which we're just going to continue for a few days because......well, because.)

I finally finished The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks. The book both horrified and fascinated me - born with a cataract and surgery for it at the age of seven, my left eye remains functionally blind.  My depth perception is learned, I don't actually have any - you need both eyes.

It never dawned on me I could one day wake up and not be able to read - not because I was blind, mind you, but due to some weakness in the arterial system or a tumor. Or not recognise faces. (Granted, I found that less horrifying than not being able to read.)

When Dr Sacks lost the use of an eye and slowly lost his super-stereoscopic vision, I was meanly somewhat delighted. Ha. Welcome to MY world. It really isn't that bad, is it? I can only imagine depth.

Wow, this computer is horrible. It's so slow, I can practically see each letter appearing after I've typed the sentence. (Hence the several days later posting.....)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! Just to warn you. Although I won't always.  Next up was the first in a time traveling YA trilogy by Kerstin Gier. It starts out with Ruby Red, the twelfth in the line of genetically chosen time travelers. Gah.I have to double check her name, it's written first person and the one I remember is her cousin, Charlotte, thought to be the time traveler of her generation, known to the family by her birthdate. Gwyneth was born a day later. Was Isaac Newton's calculations wrong? (Funny how I remembered her name finally. Gideon, the dreamy older cousin that she travels with, calls her Winnie). There's cryptic conspiracy theory poetry at the beginning of the chapters, Count Saint-Germain figures prominently, along with her best friend Lesley, that I'm waiting to reveal a few secrets of her own.

Sadly that's Book One and while Book Two (Sapphire Blue) is out, it hasn't been translated from German yet. I wonder if my grade school German would get me through it. Maybe with Google Translate? Doubtful.

It's a bit of a romance (in fact, one review stated something along the lines of it being an awful long prelude to a kiss, but even I, romance phobe that I am, enjoyed it. It's not Great Literature but who cares?

Finally I read The Weird Sisters. I'd heard that they communicated in Shakespearean quotes but that's not the case. Just apt quotes and not nearly as frequently as you'd expect from the family of a professor that made his life work a study of Shakespeare.

I liked the conceit of the novel being told from the point of view as the collective sisters - that way the third person could always be employed but there was first person knowledge sharing details. Rosalind, known as Rose, first born with all the attendant qualities of a first born (conscientious, responsible, brave, fearless, honorable, good looking...what? I would know. I'm a first born). Bianca, known as Bean, named after the younger sister in Taming of the Shrew, wild to get shut of their small college town for NYC, and finally Cordelia, Cordy, after King Lear's youngest daughter. Not much to live up to, eh? No wonder she's a drifter. They're all under the ancestral roof, ostensibly to help their mother through her cancer treatments but naturally they have their own reasons and secrets. I really enjoyed this book.

Currently I'm reading The Black Prism and debating if there are any characters at all in the book that I like. Mind you, I'm over 420 pages in so they must have some appeal, but none of them qualify as the least heroic. Possibly General Danavers, but we'll see.

In knitting news - still trying to get Secret Prototype to work out. Crocheted the bottom but can't get the knit body to pick up nicely. On the eleventh billionty version of the Sugar Scalloped Sweater. Cross your fingers, it's been a WIP since 2000.