Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs .....................

Elizabeth and I watched this movie two weeks ago and every day since.......................... Her Papa let her watch it 6 times on Saturday. I swear she knows it all by heart now..........

Today Cory took me for a spa day.  We had facials, hot wraps, 90 minute massages and pedicures.  We both came out of there totally relaxed and nothing hurt .......... It was marvellous and my skin feels fabulous.  What a lovely present.

Jill and the girls came over on Monday and made a Birthday dinner for me, plus I got new slippers, a stand for my IPad, chocolates, a Christmas craft kit, earphones and a box of wooden matches.......

Tomorrow is knit night and Gail is taking me for a Birthday dinner...................we are going to eat dessert first.  This always confuses the wait staff,  so much fun.

Yesterday both sisters and one brother phoned ............ I think I will phone my youngest brother so he can wish me Happy Birthday.  Lots of wishes on Facebook and my son phoned on Sunday.  It has been a very lovely Birthday this year.

Now I am going off to bed and hopefully will be able to finish my book.  Tomorrow is Library day as I didn't get there today..  Good Night All.

30 kilometres

     Bill had his knee surgery done at Vancouver General Hospital November 20.  All went very well with the knee but the two to three night stay turned into 11 as other issues became a problem. Needless to say he survived  and I went to visit every day but one.  We both needed to see each other. Most days one of our DDs came with me as did a small child.  VGH is 30k from our house.  This takes no time you say ............................ In the city 30 k is 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours drive.   Then they moved him to UBC hospital  (about 10 k further) for the last three days of his hospital stay. He was much happier there as the food was way better and he got more Physio.
 He has been doing his exercises and walking with a walker so is progressing and the Physio is happy with the progress. ( not the one he married but the one he goes to for treatment.).  ............... Mind you the one he married is pleased with his progress too.

We are doing Christmas at our house this year as the steps at Cory and Aaron's are too much for Bill at this time and Jill's place is a little small for all of us. I need to get my "rear in gear" and clear out some things so we have room for the tree and people.  The small child has way too many toys here  and Bill and I have way too much stuff.   Why is it that I can take at least two boxes to the second hand store and not notice a difference.  I don't bring that much home each month maybe half a box at the most yet it doesn't look like any thing has gone out.

Yesterday I finished a request from Cory.  She needed pockets put on a pair of pants ..................a lot of pockets all different fabrics.  This was a gift to the BIG BOSS at work so today I should hear about what happened.  I do have photos but Google isn't cooperating and I can't get any photos on here from the IPad.............. You will just have to use your imagination.

In the knitting department I finished Lisa's shawl ( there is a photo I cant show you). I am working on the sleeves for Shelby's sweater so should have it done for Christmas.  There is another shawl I want to finish but don't think it will get done in time.  I have sewing to do for the kids but will not say what it is.  Not that I think any of them read this but just in case.

 In the quilting department things have been rather slow.  I have the trees pinned on C and A's quilt but now I have to think about how I want to do the leaves .................again I have a photo I can't show you because Google is being a pain.
The quilt for DHs nephew is still in the planning stage and I have a couple of quilts that need some hand sewing to finish them and several that need to be quilted.

THE ROOM ............. I have been working on it but there is still a fair amount to do before it is organized.  Several boxes of stuff have gone out but still the room is too full.   I keep asking myself "How long do you think you are going to live."  ...................... Not long enough to use everything in the room that's for sure.

HELP I NEED A PLAN ................. Or something.  .............LOL

Sharing is not always fun

DD#2 has  a cold that she is sharing.  My dear Mum-in-law always says "sharing is fun" but I disagree this time .............. She and I usually agree on things.  The DGD#3 is sneezing and sniffing.  I have started my inhalers and will take an antihistamine ASAP .  I am too busy too be sick.
Went to VGH yesterday for Bill's pre-visit.  They showed a video of what to expect and what preparations need to be made.  It was very informative and DH seems to feel better about the up coming surgery.

I am working on DGD#2's sweater,  she has been very pleasant to me lately so feel more inclined to knit for her,  besides she has a BD coming up.  Tried the partly knitted sock on DGD#3 who thought it was too small until I explained it wasn't finished .......... She then OKAYED the socks (Miss Bossypants)

Targets aren't supposed to move

Today Jill, DGD and I had a snowball fight in the front yard.  I think DGD won as Jill and I ran out of snowballs. DGD has a invisible rule book and of course there are rules about snowball fights.This is 1. snowballs have to be round ( this one got scrapped)
2. Targets have to be still.
3. Sometimes you are the target and sometimes your are not.

Knitting
The shawl I am working on is causing a problem.  "Someone" made a mistake eight rows back.  I have tried to just redo that section but IT IS NOT WORKING.
Shelby's sweater is not progressing.
Dinosaurs are on hold until the above two items are finished.

Quilting
I have to match up fabric to make a wedding quilt for DHs nephew and wife.
Have the blocks for Cory's quilt  sewn together, now to do the trees and leaves.
I need to do a baby quilt for a new Grand Niece.
There are  three other children I know who also need quilts.
I have cut out one and a half quilts to sew at the retreat this month but don't know how much sewing I will get done as DH goes into hospital for knee replacement that weekend.

The house is in chaos as I am trying to organize and downsize the dwelling of two packrats.  Needless to say this is a very slow, tedious process.

Little tiny pieces

I really do wonder about my sanity some days, not that it worries me but it does lead me to ask "why am I doing this"?

In the past week I have ironed the wax paper patterns to the fabric for the remaining 35 blocks I need to do for my Dear Jane quilt. The blocks are 41/2" unfinished and I am sewing them all by hand,  I have done 134 of the 169 blocks, 33 of the 52 triangles and all four corners.  To add to the crazy making I have kept track of the number of pieces.................... just I case this is an estimate of my sanity.  Can't tell you the total at this time as I haven't added them up lately.  The last count was 2810 but that was several blocks ago.

Have also pulled out another quilt project that has been aging and finished two of the feature blocks.  Need to do two more , about 24 setting blocks and a zillion appliqués flowers and dragon flies............... This isn't mentioning the other quilt that is waiting with some of the small diamonds done that I have hand pieced .................see what I mean about my sanity.  Mind you with my family maybe these are the things that keep me sane??????

On the knitting front not much is happening.  My epic shawl is on hold, I am starting the pattern on my non-epic shawl, every time I think I will work on Shelby's sweater she does something to really
p€_}{~%*#} me.................... I really should get busy on it as I have another non-epic shawl to do before October. My sweater is on hold, have done just past the armholes (bottom up).  Elizabeth's second dinosaur  is waiting to be started. Oh yes I have almost finished a pair of socks............

Oh oh I think I hear an imaginary rainbow pony horse race happening outside which means DD and her DD have arrived so will sign off for now.
I

Wicked

Last night I went with Lisa, Sherri, Tracey, Margaret and Jeanette to see the play "Wicked" at the Queen E theatre. What a great performance and the singing was wonderful. I had to quit clapping at the end as my hands hurt too much. This is the story of the Wicked Witch in the "wizard of Oz".
Margaret and Jeannette picked me up and we all met at Lisa's house for drinks and a lovely dinner.  Taxis to and from the theatre so no worries about drinking wine. All in all it was a wonderful night. Thank you my friends.

On the home front things are fairly quiet but probably now that I have said that they won't be,  Murphy hangs around here a lot.  Elizabeth wants me to go outside and race with her.  She has shown me how to run pretending I am on a horse.  Needless to say I am not galloping along the front sidewalk with her.

We saw Shelby twice last week which was very nice.  Oh oh must go I hear them coming.

Knitting and electricity

Well today I re knit Elizabeth's purple fuzzy scarf. She brought it over on Sunday all upset because it was "ruined". It looks like on if the strands broke and it was unravelling. Her Mom had told her Grandma can fix it so I took it apart and today I re knit it so hopefully she will be happy. After all I have only done this scarf THREE yes three times. The first time it was too short for her liking, the second time it wasn't wide enough but I didn't have to redo it. This time it is longer than the first and wider than the second............. we shall see if it meets with her approval. Apparently she was born with a rule book. No one has ever seen this RULE BOOK but very so often she says "You broke a rule". She won't tell you what you did wrong but you BROKE a RULE............. She won't even tell you what the rule is but you have to say you are sorry..........this child has a VERY VIVID IMAGINATION. One day she was playing with her imaginary horses, took a blue blanket and spread it on the floor, took off all her clothes and went swimming on the blue blanket. Apparently it was a very hot day on the prairie. Shelby is going to come by today and show me how to get the zillions of emails off my IPhone. Maybe we will go shopping after that ........... Depends on her mood. At 13 that mood changes in the blink of an eye. I have been working at THE ROOM as I really need to do some quilting. After months of knitting I am slowing down in that area for a while. Have to fix the border on my two colour shawl and then that will be finished. My only problem there is I didn't write down what needle I was using ......... Will just use a LARGE set to bind off. The electrician is back again today. We lost power in half the house yesterday and it's no ground or something so he is running a new wire to the breaker or something. Fortunately we don't pay for it, one of the advantages of renting. I am going to try David Suzukis get outdoors for so long every day in May. Will see how it goes. Anyone want to join me? Well it is time for more coffee.

Tears

Well we just finished watching "Grand Turino" with Clint Eastwood. Anyone who has watched this movie and knows me knows why this is entitled "tears". My kids just shake their heads and Shelby looks at me and says "Gramma it's just a TV show. Meanwhile the tears are running down my face and sobs come from my area of the room. My children say they won't go to the movies with me because in the movie "Return to Snowy River" I leap up and yelled "THEY SHOT THE HORSE". Is it a wonder I do not watch scary movies............ I get so involved in the show. The only scary movie I ever watched was "The Shining". My siblings forced me to watch it. I spent most of the time with my hands over my face. It would be better if I could turn off the sound because then I wouldn't be able to hear "The Scary Music"......... You do realize that all bad parts of movies have SCARY MUSIC. If there is SCARY MUSIC I usually have to do something in the kitchen or THE ROOM .............. I come back when the SCARY MUSIC stops. You see I can listen to the SCARY MUSIC or watch the show but not both........ Oh well. Off to make some tea.

Half a block

That is what I managed to sew at quilting on Sunday. Five of us went out it Birgit's. She had booked the lodge for the day so we had lots of room. I just took hand sewing as I didn't want to haul the sewing machine and assorted other stuff. I worked on one of my DJ blocks and managed to sew 21 small pieces together by hand. I would have got more do e but we had to have show and tell, catch up on what has happened since October, have a look at everyone's projects and just generally visit. That sort of limited my sewing time. I have discovered that I am way more chatty than I think I am. Here I always thought of myself as quiet and shy......... Finished the throw I was making. It has Elizabeth's approval as her comment was "it's big enough for me."

Doctors

Yesterday I went with Bill to the Complex Joint Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital. He had x-rays, blood work, ECG , was seen by the rather negative resident and the more positive surgeon. They told him he has to see the Cardiologist who will have the final decision on whether or not he can have the surgery. I had a disagreement with the resident when he said Bill had COPD, the surgeon said it was almost the same as asthma. I showed some restraint and only said "No it isn't" and left it at that. Didn't tell him I was a retired PT. Have been trying to figure out the project(s) I will do during the Olympics. The Ravellry group has what are now called Ravellenics when the Olympics are on. The idea is to challenge yourself with the type or number of knitting projects and we get badges for finishing. It was called the Ravellympics but the IOC demanded that the site owners stop using that title. Apparently us doing these knitting projects was demeaning all the work the athletes went through, plus there was a whole lot of other sh"&#^~€. Cripes it has been four years since this happened and I am still annoyed about it. I know for me I watched way more of the Olympics than I have in the past. Anyway the past is past and we are doing the same thing under a different title. For my projects I want to do a pair of colour work mittens and a Maple Leaf Shaped shawl. Then I looked at all my UFOs ( unfinished projects)and thought maybe I should be finishing them instead of starting something new or maybe I should see if I can finish my Williamson shawl. Mind you if I wanted to finish my shawl, I would have to lock myself in THE ROOM and ignor everyone for the duration of the games......... Some how I don't think this would be a popular choice.

Dying

I don't do this very often so finding the supplies and equipment can be a challenge at our house. I had some yarn I wanted to dye and I found the dyes okay but the pot was eluding me. Anyone who has ever been in our house will understand this problem. So I check the back porch, good place to start right ............. Not there but now I am thinking WHAT A MESS!!!........... Some needs to clean this mess up ........ Someone = Me in our house. It's raining .......... I don't want to go out in the rain. ............... but I need the dye pot. Brew a cup of coffee and try to think of alternatives. I could use the food colouring and vinegar in the crock pot. Don't think I can get the colour I want. I have the colour in a dye packet but you can't dye with it using dishes you are going to eat from so although I tell the family to eat their poison mushrooms it is just a family joke. (I don't think they use mushrooms to make this dye.) Having been unable to come up with an alternative solution I put on my boots and coat, get the shed keys and bravely go out into the downpour (it's really more of a constant drizzle). The back shed is the most likely one to have the dye pot in it as it was here when we moved in..............THE KEY DOESNT WORK ............ The lock is rusted shut. Check the tarp garage what's-it. Can't get in there as DH has it full of STUFF. ( he says it's all good stuff......I say it is 3/4 full of JUNK). Anyway you don't want to hear about on going family issues (like for years) One shed left to check, I am fairly sure the pot isn't in there but I will check. Lock opens nicely, NO RUST, and NO POT. Now what ... Back into the house, brew more coffee, sit down, think, think, think. The crock pot will take too long so what else is big enough.......... The canning pressure cooker will work and I will just have to use the food dye. Into the kitchen, look up at the shelf above the cupboard for the canning pot........................ What do I see sitting right nest to it ......... You guessed it THE DYE POT. If anyone knows where my brain went please send it home. .

Almost a month

I did have good intentions of blogging more frequently and today I noticed it has been almost a month since I posted anything. So much for those plans....... I really have been busy with Birthdays, Christmas, Anniversary and dogs. For her Birthday Aaron took Cory to Mexico. They have three dogs so DJ (old, poodle cross, sweet and well behaved) went to a friends house. Dozer, a roly-poly white chihuahua came to us and Kujo, active, black and white chihuahua/Boston terrier cross went to Jill. The only problem with this plan is Jill and Elizabeth come over every day and yes she brought their dog Princess AND Kujo. When she left to go do what ever she goes to do we got left with FOUR ........ YES 4 dogs. I realize I have already told everyone about this but that was at the beginning of the "week of extra dogs". Kujo and Dozer are both male dogs so like to mark their territory so they had to be watched. Kujo and Priscilla played and played together. Princess would get involved if she thought Priscilla was getting hurt......... I guess this is sort of a sibling thing........ I can be mean to my sister but don't you dare. Well about this point Dozer joins in as he thinks he is the boss and the the fight is on. The fight was usually between Kujo and Dozer. So the dogs are fighting , Elizabeth is laughing and trying to get in the middle Of the dogs, Bill is yelling things the dogs don't understand and Elizabeth shouldn't hear. Meanwhile I or Jill and I are trying to separate the dogs and hoping none of them gets injured........... Needless to say all thoughts of having two dogs have been discarded. Mind you Bill had said NO to the possibility of having two dogs but it isn't really his decision. I announced years ago that I have the final say about pets in the house as I am the one that always has to look after them. Christmas was lovely, Jill and girls came over Christmas Eve and then I went to Jill's Christmas morning. We all went to Cory and Aaron's for dinner. We had churducken, don't know if the spelling is correct, but it was good, very rich and not something I would want every year. For our Anniversary I cooked a turkey as we NEEDED turkey for sandwiches. I can't believe it has been 44 years that we have been married, I can't be that old..........LOL. I didn't knit Christmas gifts this year as I never seem to get things done on time and always am madly knitting Christmas Eve. This year I gave my self a rest. Every year the Girls want dish cloths so this year I have joined a Ravellry group that knits two rows every day. By December I will have 12 dish cloths, at least that is the plan. I am sure some of them will get gifted during the year but either way I won't me madly knitting dish cloths Christmas Eve. On the spinning front I am plying some of the fibre I bought at OFFF with a green silk thread. Haven't decided if I like it as it is coming out very green ............. What a surprise. Needless to say I have been dragging my feet about finishing the plying. My "Williamson Stole" has been on hold but will get back to it this week for sure. Oh oh it's Friday ........well next week...... For sure. Have talked to Che and Liz a couple of times over the holidays. I really miss not seeing them but this year I will see them one way or another. Well that's it for today. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE