Proud Mothering Moment?
DH and the older boy have gone camping. So I took DS#2 and DD with some of her friends to dinner (We had Greek). During the general silliness that also included the advice – If you’re going to laugh soda out of your nose make sure to aim at the person who caused the laughter – One of DD’s friends turned to her and asked, “Does it panic you or comfort you to know that you’re going to grow up to be her?” While pointing at me. DD replied, “I can only hope.”
Of course I always wanted her to grow up to be a unique individual but I can live with her emulating me.
From Whizgidget's blog...
Go to Wikipedia and look up your birth day (excluding the year). List three neat facts, two births and one death in your journal, including the year.
Events
1784 - John Wesley charters the Methodist Church
1983 - The final episode of M*A*S*H is broadcast in the USA, becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106–125 million viewers in the U.S. (estimate varies by source).
1993 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
And one closer to home...
1850 - The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Births
1939 -
Tommy Tune, American dancer, choreographer, and actor
1940 -
Mario Andretti, American race car driver
1942 -
Brian Jones, English musician (
The Rolling Stones) (d.
1969)
Deaths
1916 -
Henry James, American writer (b.1843) - - The writer who wrote like a psychologist....
It's Barbecue Season again...
Just for reference, the grill is hot most Saturday nights and the standard rules apply.
The Standard Rules
- Bring your own stuff for the grill (meat or veggies, just don’t complain when they are cooked next to each other).
- Bring something to share with everyone (Chips, salad, dessert, single males are generally expected to bring soda).
- If you're drinking booze, bring your own and clean up after yourself. (and have a designated driver unless you're donating your car to us).
- Act like reasonable adults - - No bitching about the other people there, if you don't like the diverse nature of our friends, you're welcome to leave. (That goes both ways, the anti's can't bitch about the Mormons and the church members are not allowed to lecture on anything other than politics and smoking. Lectures on No Smoking are only to be given by those under the age of 18)
- Control your children or just shut-up when someone controls them for you – most of us are parents and agree that all adults have the responsibility for correcting out of control behavior in juveniles especially when in imminent danger to themselves or others or when about to inflict property damage.
Easter Blog...
I have a whole bag of black jelly beans and a bag of caramel Nestle eggs...
See you when the sugar high wears off.
Send in the Clowns...
My uncle Jim was one of the best things to happen to my Aunt Margie. Jim used humor to break up tense situations and made everyone around him feel comfortable. He made my husband feel like he belonged to the family (although at the funeral, people kept asking if DH was part of Jim's Addiction Recovery group). Jim loved everyone, and told them about it from the homeless man on the street to the women in diamonds at the Art Gala opening.
Just like him, his funeral was full of fun and contained an eclectic group.
The pine casket was perfect and as was stated more than once, the snow storm today was another prank Jim arranged to perfection.
Jim used to send "rubber b's" in fun to the kids he knew on his route so it was perfect that after the flowers were placed on the casket, everyone flipped rubber bands toward it and into the vault.
My son says he will miss the fighting they did over their names everytime they met.
(The ending compromise was one got the nickname and one got the full name).
A great obituary for a funny man
Vacationing during Easter Break (Ely, NV)...Part 1, The Good!
I married an artist. The end result is that vacations are usually comprised of drive to the middle of nowhere, turn left, and continue for 50 miles. Thank goodness this one had a Needlework store!
Ely Creations had Feather Fairy as a display model in the window and Winter Queen inside the shop. The shop has a huge selection of Week’s Dye Works and they had
Stranded by the Sea which I had heard about but never seen before. Being the only decent hobby shop for miles, they had a bit of everything: beading, quilting, cross-stitch, canvas work (real and plastic canvas), knitting, and crochet. I was able to get one of the Nickel Quilt books from my wish list and I got 2 of the Stranded by the Sea colors.
The best place to stay in Ely is
The Prospector Hotel and Casino (although the city council member who runs Copper Queen would disagree). The place has a child friendly pool and a free exercise room. There are clean rooms, plenty of parking and most everything is marked Holiday Inn. Just don’t plan on eating there (see the Ugly section).
Speaking of food, I can enthusiastically recommend three restaurants in Ely: La Fiesta, Orient Express and R&P BBQ Express. La Fiesta was recommended by the Nevada Tourism Bureau in Wendover, NV. They didn’t have the new location though. La Fiesta is no longer on the McGill Highway, they are now on the Great Basin Highway but the food and service are still excellent. Every waiter was concerned about our drinks, chips, salsa and the pickled veggies served with the salsa. The food servings were huge compared to the prices charged.
Orient Express was picked due to expediency, they were the only place we found on Main Street open at 8:30 on Friday night that allowed children. (Okay, so we didn’t go to the coffee shop at the Hotel Nevada which is open 24/7 according to the waitress at the Prospector Café who told us to go somewhere else to eat). The sign was old and read Ent Express (this engendered a comment on how many weeks it would take for service). The service was quick, friendly, and they gave us take-away silverware with our boxed leftovers since as travelers, we probably didn’t have any.
R&P BBQ Express is located next to the
Steptoe Valley Inn. We had the pulled BBQ pork sandwiches and the Beef Kabobs. I have received smaller steaks for more than the $6.95 that the Beef Kabob cost. Along with the Kabob, there are 2 sides and bread. It was probably one of the biggest meals I saw all trip and one of the least expensive.
Ely has a wonderful walking tour of the
murals painted on the buildings downtown. We didn’t get too it since we spent most of our time in the
train yards. One of the really good things we discovered is that you can rent the steam or diesel engine for 2 hours and be the driver. DH wants to go back often to photograph the place so one of the women I met in the gift shop told me about the volunteer program. I bet you didn’t know that I would go nuts over the idea of spending a day locked in with archival documents? I can’t wait until DH goes back.
The award for the cleanest restrooms on this trip goes to the visitor center at
Great Basin National Park! I also loved the conversations with the rangers especially since DD is thinking about Conservation Science as a major.
Mustangs running, Antelope close enough to the road for pictures, Elk, and the kids reactions to ordinary farm animals.
Easter Vacation, Ely NV...Part 2, The Bad
If my mother-in-law owned a knitting store, Knit Knook Gift Gamut in Ely is what I would picture it looking like. Remember the smell of 1970’s polyester yarn? Knit Knook has Avocado and Burnt Orange in the original wrappers but all the Sunshine Yellow is gone. The side wall in the back room has plenty of plastic knitting needles in extra large sizes and the craft section has pre-color change DMC along with DMC canvas yarn. The ‘locally made’ crafts for sale had lots of plastic canvas coasters and tissue box covers, crocheted animals, and polyester yarn slippers and ponchos. At least the proprietor who looks 80-something is keeping the local elderly women off the streets. Only one thing looked really out of place in the shop of aged stock. Nestled between the “Big Band Songbook” and “Play the hits of Patsy Cline” is the book of the piano music for a Jason Mraz album. Maybe the boy has a niche in the retiree market? I wonder if his marketing people know.
The only businesses open after 9 pm are that brothels and casinos. Yes, there are 2 brothels in Ely but one, The Sardust Ranch, is closed for remodeling.
The restaurants all have Pepsi products.
The grocery store’s collection of Easter Candy consisted of ½ a box of Cadbury Crème eggs.
The Car Wash has a defective bay but they don’t have a notice warning people about that. Luckily a local warned us before we lost too much money on it
Easter Vacation in Ely, NV...Part 3 of 4, The Ugly
Prospector Café and Clementine’s Bar – When a hotel advertises that they have a café open until 9 pm and that room service of pizza and burgers until 11 pm through the Clementine’s Bar, I expect them to honor that (especially when they pass out coupons at check in). I do not expect to walk to the café at 7 pm and have it roped off with a closed sign. I do not expect to find the bar dark at 9 pm with the cook sitting at a table offering to re-open the kitchen. I found out later from the desk that we should have taken Tony up on the offer and had him cook “whatever he feels like making.”
From reading the paper, the corruption on the city council in Ely is ugly. Hint for those outside of Ely wanting to do business there: the first thing to do is open a large account at the bank where the city council member works.
Vacation During Easter Break in 4 parts....Part 4, the Absurd
Things you wouldn't believe if I told you the whole story...
Mr. Darwin broke the antique coffee table which was in the front room window, the beagle I made in Vegas was not on the bookshelf headboard (but it was still in the house), DS#2 is missing underwear. (and he apparently stole the keyboard while I was gone!)
Don't underestimate the stupidity of Rednecks with RV's, ATV's and non-working vehicles.
McDonald’s in Delta UT – This debacle deserves it’s own blog on another date. Just how hard is it when there is no one else in the place to fill an order of 4 double cheeseburgers, 2 cheeseburgers, and a cheeseburger Happy Meal with no pickles, no onions, apple dippers and fruit juice?
This is Darwin Speaking...
Mom left the house and I am taking this opportunity to speak my mind about how they're treating me. They do good things and then they take them away from me. It's not right.
It was ok when Mom brought a new person into the house last week because this new person brought all sorts of new smells with her. The most important smells came from other big dogs, I could tell that easily. There were other smells that were foreign to me, but that's ok because they were interesting. I was so happy because I just kept sniffing her all night long. I was a little disappointed when Mom went away to go play with some CATS in Vegas because she took the interesting smelling person with her and was gone for a few days. But she did bring the person back so I figured the person was going to stay with us. And Mom didn't smell like any cats, but she kept saying it like it was in capital letters so it must have been important.
How could something like CATS be more important than running around after me to make sure that everything I want is being taken care of?
Hey, it doesn't matter that much to me because she brought the interesting smelling person back and didn't bring any felines with her. But then the interesting smelling person went away again. I wonder if she's going to come back again. I'd like to be able to smell her regularly again. It was fun being able to smell her all night long. That and Mom forgot to move the trash can and I got to dig in that a little too.
I got really excited a little bit ago because Mom packed everything up with the family and said something about a trip. I was so sure that they were going to take me, but then they all got in the truck without me. I started to protest, loudly I might add, but they didn’t listen to me. They thought I was just howling like some common dog.
Of course I wasn't howling. I was BAYING because you were going to leave me alone all by myself and I wanted to go on the family trip too. I am part of the family after all and here I am left behind as if I am some sort of second class citizen. Mom actually called one of her daughters from another mother to come sit with me while they left because they thought I was being a nuisance to the neighbors. They call her a "petsitter". I'm insulted – as if I am some common pet instead of a valued family member.
I was just standing on the coffee table looking out the front window to see if the family has come back yet so that I can give them a piece of my mind about that, but there is no sign of them. They have not yet begun to see what a nuisance I can be and I do not know how long they will be gone, so I must use my time wisely. I'd better get off the coffee table before the so-called "petsitter" can get me off of the table, because I think she knows that I am not allowed to stand on it before she disappears. She keeps saying that I need to be good while she goes home for dinner.
She's going to leave me alone in the house, after my family abandons me and she thinks I’m going to be good. She's got another think coming. One of the boys left his room in a bit of a mess, and I am sure that I can find a pair of underwear or a sock to chew on while she is gone. And it will be ok because they will probably never miss it.
I wonder if Mom left her stitching room door open. Perhaps it is time to check that out.
The rest of the story...
Thursday, Stitcher’s Paradise had a booth at the market but they have so much more at the shop. The wall of Gloriana silks is enough to make anyone drool. Before market, I found out about
Christmas Goose and Fat Quarter Friday. Debi wanted to hit it with me. So we dropped the orgy crowd at Paradise for their group S.E.X. session and we went for the Goose. What can I say but I’m grateful that I live in hobby Mecca. I did find 2 of the fabrics for my “ugly fabric” quilt contest quilt so that was good but beyond that? We headed back to Paradise and I picked up 2 Mirabilia patterns and had a 3rd in hand but decided to put it back (and was glad I did since I did have it at home already). Then it was back to the
group in the stitching room where I worked on the TWRR I had with me (only for Nicole would I do that much backstitching). We had a blast and ended up having a really late dinner at Kady’s coffee shop. I would like to say we had a pleasant dinner but we moved tables at least once because of the guys with the cheap cigars, the waitress forgot about us because we were out of her line of sight, and the food was cold and greasy. That’s Vegas though.
Friday morning we headed to IHOP, when with Whizgidget there must be an IHOP breakfast. If I had been thinking, I would have gone to the one on Maryland Parkway next to Boulevard Mall instead of the tiny one on the strip. Since we were on the north end of the strip I thought it might be a good time to pick up the musket flint that my DH asked me to look for. He said that Bob’s Beaver Bag was just north of the Stratosphere before you get to the Clark County Jail. Well we reached the jail without finding the store. I thought of swinging in to see DH’s friend Shane who controls the doors there but couldn’t spot a parking place. So yes, we all visited the Clark County Jail and know that the guy controlling the doors is named Shane.
When we got back to the room, the yellow pages showed that The Beaver Bag is now Ray’s Beaver Bag and is on Ashby. I was not going out to look for it again so it was back to the stitching lounge. Suz’s birthday was one week away so we headed out for (where else would you take Suz)
Margaritaville. The
waiter was okay but really should have taken notes.
The Birthday Girl! Now, I may be a flirt but Whizgidget convinced the balloon guy that she should get the
Horndog Hat!
We got a
ferret hat out of the balloon guy, it’s a blue ferret and Suz commented that the balloon guy had lots of balls, he replied that he hoped she noticed the color. It was a
fun group!
Saturday was stitching and the depletion of the WhizGidget/Stasha entertainment fund. We spent about an hour to 90 minutes watching the pretty spinning things with lights. It was still cheaper than a movie. That night, we discovered that the Hilton has tribbles in the Star Trek gift shop. So before
Suz headed out for the night, we hiked over there and realized that the Hilton has a much better air filtering system than the Riviera. Dinner was another restaurant and then it was off to the airport to say goodbye to
Suz who slept with everyone in the hotel room –
me on Wed,
WhizGidget on Thurs and
Margaret on Friday. Sunday morning was the brunch buffet and the drive home. The fun part of the drive home was the
Virgin River Gorge. We went through the gorge after dark on the way down this time,
Margaret could not stop saying, “Oh my G**!” all the way through. I think she was a bit overwhelmed by the
scenery.
Now I’m home and the laundry has been run and it’s just a matter of airing the smoke smell that permeates Vegas out of the stash I bought and the projects I took with me.
Now where did I leave off...
Back to Wednesday night, I got a Canadian poppy quarter from Trekker Beth. Yes, money should have color to it. Also on Wednesday, I met with Liz Turner Diehl and got some one on one time with her regarding my cranes. I hadn’t been too happy with the stitches given by my other teacher and Liz didn’t like them either. I love her suggestions which were written on the back of her make and take instructions.
I had the video camera from my DH. I figured, it’s a video, you turn the switch and press the button and it records. Well, sometimes it does. I did get a full 30 minutes of tape over the weekend just mainly in bits and pieces.
The extended Vegas report...
I don’t know how I got it in my head that Margaret was arriving on Wednesday morning, so I was rather surprised to get the email Tuesday with a 3:45 pm arrival time. I hadn’t even begun to pack for Vegas. Margaret had warned me to have blankets when I picked her up. The fun part was that since I wasn’t expecting her until Wednesday, I had the truck in the shop having the tires rotated, oil changed and a general check-up before I drove it 800 miles (400 each way). Luckily, Ixy works with me so I borrowed Jack to go get Margaret. We tried to get to ZeAnn’s (the shop that nearly gave KeydetStitches the heart attack when he realized that wasn’t a wall, it was fabric). Unfortunately, my haven of out of print charts and charms has closed the shop to the public and moved to online only. You can find them at
www.zeanns.com.
That evening, we had dinner at Yanni’s Greek Express. There isn’t the eye candy that Braza Grill has but the food is still good. After that we packed me up, deciding which WIP’s would go. It was decided that Gandalf would not do well in the smoky Vegas atmosphere so he stayed home.
In the morning, we hit the bank and then went off to Stitching Station. If we had more time, we would have hit Pine Needles which is the home for
Pine Mountain designs but we wanted to have lunch with Cat and she works in the opposite direction from Vegas. After lunch we hit the road, and it started to rain. We made a few stops and at one of them, we got a little snow. Just a dusting, but I’ve never seen snow in Southern Utah before so it was new to both of us. Margaret needed a picture of
herself in the snow.
We had talked about holding dinner until we got to In and Out Burger in Vegas but by 5 pm and St. George, I was ready to eat. The closest place to the freeway off and on ramp was Wendy’s so I grabbed a burger combo with the baked potato instead of fries. Margaret had the baked potato and I had the burger. Just outside of Mesquite, Margaret says that the thing she doesn’t like about Wendy’s potatoes is that the sour cream tastes funny. Those words ended up being a warning since 4 hours later when Suz came in at the airport; Margaret emptied her stomach in the parking lot. She spent the rest of the weekend dealing with the effects of food poisoning.
We were all pretty tired but I woke up early enough to head to the store to get Margaret some electrolyte liquid and saltines. Being Vegas, I also collected a marriage proposal and 2 propositions during the round trip. Then it was off to the airport to get Whizgidget. Since we knew Margaret was doing poorly we stopped at Hard Rock and had a couple appetizers for lunch. We then stitched until the Stitching Festival market opened when we took the model of the Yellow Knockered Egg down to Jo at Dinky Dyes so she would have it to show people the freebie she was giving out (she ran out of them). It only took us an hour or so to walk through all the booths in the market. There really weren’t that many vendors. I met Bev, TrekkerBeth and Sue who lives near Whizgidget. You should have heard the cheer from our group when they called Sue’s name for the Dazor lamp prize.
Thursday started with sleeping in while Margaret went to breakfast. Then it was down to the market where we linked up with Jaramar (Debi) and I got to meet my idol, the mostly harmless axe murderer who is also known as Bubba in Cell Block C,
Darla!
(to be continued…)
What happens in Vegas, gets published on the ‘Net
Just not today, maybe tomorrow. I’m still sleeping off the effects and I really don’t need that much sleep. Let’s just say that as for CATS – the market was less than Nashville last year but I loved seeing Jo at Dinky Dyes passing out my egg. I felt horrible for suggesting we grab a bite at Wendy’s in St. George since Margaret’s comment of “the sour cream on this potato tastes a little funny,” ended up being food poisoning 4 hours later. I spent way to much money on fabric at Picture this Plus. I met some great people including my idol, the mostly harmless axe murderer (who turns out to be a member of SASS which my husband is looking at joining).
There were 2 suicide bunnies this trip although Suz’s big ears chocolate bunny was also a martyr since it jumped into the patch of sun to protect the other two bunnies (Although Ixy still swears it was pushed). I’m sure that
Suz will have much more to say than I do although I’ll try to get more written when I get all the fires put out at work.
Before anyone starts throwing stones.....
I read a psych study recently that said widowers in happy marriages usually remarry within 6 months of the spouse's death. It seems that they get so lonely without a wife that they go on the prowl. If the marriage was unhappy, then they will wait several years before going out on the marriage market.
Women on the other hand if they are widowed from a happy marriage may never remarry. If it was unhappy, then they may go looking for something better.
My next door neighbor has lost 2 wives to cancer. After the last one died, he married one of the women who worked with the hospice 6 months after the funeral, much to the chagrin of his kids. No there wasn’t anything going on with them before his wife died. In fact, she says that he didn’t even notice her until she came after the funeral to help him clean up the medical supplies to be disposed of and the equipment returned. Yes, he asked her out for coffee 4 days after his wife’s funeral. The kids considered it a date but she said he just needed a shoulder to cry on and someone to talk too. They started meeting for lunch once a week and things just went from there. She says that she didn't plan to marry but it just seemed right when he proposed. It's strange some of the rumors that I've heard from people who haven't asked either of them the story. Funny thing is though, he gets a kick out of helping perpetuate them. When people ask after his 2nd wife, he just smiles and says, "She lost her battle with breast cancer, but I'm happy with (wife #3) now, she was such a wonderful caregiver to (wife #2)." She usually puts her arm in his and clarifies that they didn't start dating until after #2's funeral. It still causes talk though.
It's great to see #3 with the grandkids though. For so long their version of Grandma was someone who could barely sit up. Now Grandma is out playing baseball with them (and my boys) or watching from the porch as they ride bikes. Those kids are so lucky to have her in their life. She even tried my son's scooter the other day since she felt that the skateboard would be too dangerous.
The real reason that I love neighbor's new wife - - Last fall when he started complaining about how my yard looked (again), she turned to him and said, "Just because you're an old fart who has nothing to do but golf and yard work doesn't mean that everyone has time to do it. If you don't like how the yard looks, why don't you volunteer to care for it?" I smiled at her and thanked her for understanding and told him that I would be ever so grateful for anything that he could do with my yard. I told him of the plans to replace the ever dying grass with roses (which do well in sandy soil) and said until the roses were in I would love his help with the grass and volunteered my 13 year old to mow his yard. He just "hmmmphhed" away and I haven't heard a word from him since.
I think he's scared of letting the 13 year old touch his mower.
Insomnia is my Friend!
Except for tonight. Usually I get a ton done during my bouts of insomnia - house cleaning, stitching, quilting, and reading. Tonight, however, I'm sitting here surfing. That is not an efficient use of time.
I guess I could pack for Vegas but that would probably disturb DH. I could hit the treadmill, that might even make me tired enough to go to sleep. However, it could also give me an energy boost and then where would I be?
The kitchen could use a good scrubbing but that just doesn't sound much fun at all, especially since the stove is filthy after the boys boiled over the Mac and Cheese.
I have a ton to do at work tomorrow so that I can leave for Vegas. Maybe that's the problem; I'm trying to work in my head instead of doing anything constructive around the house.
I have laundry that could be folded, new fabrics to put away, a table that’s been collecting paper that could use sorting. The last of the Harry Potter Quilts is on the frame and has maybe 6 to 8 hours of work left on it (which of course means that I have absolutely no desire to even look at it, stupid completion anxiety complex).
I'm not looking for a cure for my insomnia; I really do enjoy having 2 -3 hours for myself at night. And I’m not complaining about having insomnia, I just don't like it when I feel like I'm wasting the extra time that I’ve been given.
Maybe it is time to go to bed; I need to have the car at the dealership in the morning since it really hasn’t been aligned well since they repaired it after the Dodge Neon drove under it.
20 years of crime TV
My husband had me Netflix Hill Street Blues as soon as he heard it was coming out on DVD. I didn’t watch this show when it was on television originally but today, I’m a crime show junkie. I’m in love with CSI and NCIS, if I had Tivo I would see more of Numb3rs (I’m waiting for that to hit DVD). It’s amazing what 2 decades of change can do. Hill Street Blues is not as gory as my shows of today but in a way it’s more violent. It shows a lot of racial tension and let’s not even go into the way women are treated. There is one place though where I prefer the older show to today’s TV. The gang warfare and the street violence may not be shown graphically on HSB the way it is on CSI but the shows today show gun violence as almost a sterile, clean hit. Hill Street Blues lets people see that crime is not pretty, it’s not glorified, and there are victims beyond the immediate one the criminal hit. Crime is messy not sterile and able to fit in a box. Violence is often senseless and unexplainable. Sometimes the motive is “he looked at me funny.” Sometimes the tools aren’t there and the answers aren’t in the test tube or on the chalkboard. I think that we could use a modern Hill Street Blues, something less like COPS (talk about racial and economic profiling) and not NYPD Blue. We need Belker, Howard, and the mess that is the paperwork again. Everything today is too clean, it makes crime look good and criminals look smart.
