Oh the weeping and wailing..

............and gnashing of teeth

I took the car in for an oil change.
The engine light was on..I panicked
Good news..the gas cap was loose, causes the engine light to come on. Don't ask me I work in an office and knit.
........then........
The Bad News.
Words like "tire rods and alignment" and "front brake pads and rotors"
I am going to be sick. My feet are doing the tarantella on the panic button. Tomorrow at 8:30 I am taking the baby car to another Doctor for a second opinion. I am not holding out much hope. This means: Savings - emptied, Chequing account - emptied, Knitting budget - cancelled, Nothing for the RRSP this month. Negotiate loan from Carl....sigh..

I wonder if you can keep a pony in the city?

The fine art of satire.

Reference :Newspaper clip on Fox News program. The original show is on Youtube.
It has taken me a couple of days to calm down. You had to know that I would be addressing this topic in the light of the manifold ignorance spewed from a loud mouth jerk backed up by "the 3 stooges." One of which has had his comedy "gig" cancelled in Edmonton . You are not wanted fool.
Satire is an art and I appreciate smart, clever, and witty repartee. I have no patience with pathetic uninformed ramblings of the uneducated.
The definition of satire is:
1.
the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
2.
a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.


Fox News claims this was a satirical program.....snort...shows what little they know.

Canada does not have a huge military budget. We prefer to supply our citizens with health care.


We have not shirked our duty. Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, Korea, Viet Nam and now Afghanistan. We honour our fallen heroes. We do not sneak them in to the country by a back door airbase. Every Canadian knows how many have died (116) all because of the on going envolvement with American Military. I am disgusted and disappointed with the whole fiasco and deeply offended.

On the knitting front:

Last weekend I was in Burlington and Corinne bought this nifty little booklet. I was looking for a project for the Global Art Project for Peace 2010. I know I am early but, hey, time flies. There is the sweetest scarf pattern in there called Children of the Earth. It is perfect. Except it is crochet. So I am re graphing the whole thing to knitting. I woke up at 3:30am and could not get back to sleep. So I made some peppermint tea and sat and worked on the graphs. This weekend I would like to get some of the swatching done.

Finished with an hour to spare.

I made it!! I finished my Vernal Equinox shawl. Can't wait to wear it. More pictures on the knitting blog. Knitting socks will be a treat after all this lace knitting.

There's a robin singing out side.

Quick post today. St Patrick was a Welshman, just wanted to get that out there in case you didn't know. He was a disciple of St David. Kidnapped to Ireland and kept as a slave. As is usually the case the real story is more interesting that the stories, go look it up.


No self respecting Irishman would ever drink green beer, shudder. Go flush it.


I watched a robin in the garden yesterday. He would hop along..stop.. stand very still, squat down, turn his head so one eye was directly above the ground.....and then suddenly turn his head and strike the ground with his beak and came up with a worm. It was fascinating. I had the window open last night and woke up while it was still dark to hear the robins singing in the trees. It reminded me of spring mornings in Rockwood....sigh....This is my desktop picture. I took this in early June. Love that place!!
> On the knitting front, according to my calculations I am at 94% on the Vernal Equinox Shawl. Pictures will be posted cross blog again. I will knit this one again. It is a peach of a pattern. Friday is the Vernal Equinox so I am knitting with, as they say, a "hot needle."

My Irish grandfather, "Ernie".... a real leprechaun ....

Heartburn ...Headache

I am on day two of a head ache. This is not something with which I usually have a problem. This is a caffeine deprived headache. Knowing that doesn't help. The obvious response is "get thyself to Timmies" relief in an instant and it is "roll up the rim" time. (Canadian rite of spring ritual) Which leads me to comment that all I ever win is "please try again. Instead I am popping Advil gels..good stuff.

Anyway, The cure is sometimes worse than the ill. I will attempt to elaborate. Back in Sept, remember when I made my middle of the night sirens blaring trip to University Hospital? Besides the nasty appendix I was told I have a hiatus hernia..a little one.. Well the bugger has been bothering me of late. I am taking an over the counter med which helps but I seem to be locked in this never ending acid reflux. Sooooo I have decided to take some drastic measures.

I have cut out coffee, tea, chocolate, tomato based foods and wine amongst other foods. I am back on my bland diet. If it's white I eat it..lol ... here's a sample: rice, mashed potato, vanilla pudding, apple sauce, raw apple, rice cakes, chicken broth, arrowroot cookies, vanilla ice cream, yogurt and gallons of mint tea. I am eating something about every 2 hours. I had to eat like this once before and did it for 4 months before my gall bladder surgery. I figure two weeks of this should setting my digestion down. Then I shall be more careful what I eat.

On the knitting front:

Matthew's sweater is progressing nicely, I am on the second sleeve and I am looking forward to getting on to the intarsia portion on the front.

I am just about to the end of clue 4 of 6 for my Vernal Equinox Shawl KAL. I fear I won't be done by the 20th..grrr

Julie ( Samurai Knitter) has inspired me to knit cotton lace!. I have felt a table cloth coming on. A doily would have been smarter but you know me .."in for a penny in for a pound." Last night after work I picked up the cotton and started knitting. You will have to go over here to see pictures. I will post them after work. It is Marianne Knizel's Daffodil Cloth. I started it once before with cheap cotton...shudder... I ended up throwing it out.

....ttfn

I love the whole world..

The world needs to sing more and fight less.

Booze and a Haircut

It was raining and Carl got called into work, so in a moment of boredom I went to the hairdresser. Sigh. Will I never learn? They don't listen. Just carve that on my tomb stone. Now I am scalped, shorn, ignored and $35 dollars poorer. They pack you out the door with a wet head and I got attitude from the chicka on the cash that next customer has been waiting and wants colour done.. well big deal. Hope you like the money I won't be back and I will be sending a letter to the hair salon registering my disapproval. I would rather pay $100 for a decent haircut than take that. It's enough to make you drink.


Which brings me to my next topic. If you don't live in Ontario you will not know about our Victorian attitude to the evils of selling alcohol. Alcohol, aka Spirits, are only sold in an LCBO store. That would be the Liquor Control Board of Ontario also known as the Liquor Licensing Board or if you work for them (as my daughter does) simply, "The Board." (see below) It is a provincial government run establishment. Beer is only sold here or at "The Beer Store." Wine can be purchased in wine outlets at most large chain operated grocery stores. Never IN the store itself. God forbid the hooch should be an aisle away from the cereal and diapers.

I was thinking about when I was a child. The legal drinking age was 21. The only liquor store in town was a raised red brick building. There was a tall flight of stairs to the IN door and another from the OUT door. If you were unable to climb stairs you were out of luck. These solid doors opened onto a foyer with another large solid door. God forbid anyone walking by would be able to see inside. Children were left in the car unattended, better to take their chances with a kidnapper than to bring them inside and chance them being scared for life by seeing row upon row of sparking bottles of Crown Royal. The only windows were the size of the average basement window and were along the top of the wall. Unless you were hang gliding past there was no fear of you being seduced by the sight of evil liquor.. I kid you not. Your purchase was delivered in a heavy brown paper bag.

I couldn't wait to be 21 to get inside there and look around. The all male employees who unfortunately knew my father would never have let me cross the threshold before then.

Now, the sun shines in the huge windows and all and sundry are welcomed by automatic sliding doors. Last weekend my mother asked if we could go to the (whisper) liquor store??? She wondered if they sold icewine in a single serving box. She couldn't go to the liquor store where she lived because then everyone in town would know and she was curious how it tasted. So off we go. Mom hid out in the car and I went in an bold as brass (lol) bought her a bottle of ice wine, single serving, $7.95 and asked if they still had plain brown paper bags. How will she ever recyle a bag from the ...liquor store....!!!!

I can hear my children laughing. Granny will be 84 in May and please don't tell her I posted this she will have a fit and worry that everyone in town will think she has a drinking problem.

See the happy person on the right? She stays away from scissors.

Teaopia

Watch for this logo in your favourite mall. The English Breakfast Black Tea is excellent. Tea really is best when made with loose leaves. Tea bags really are just dust. The link is HERE.

Whilst I was in the mall on Friday after work picking up another 50 gm of tea I decided to try a "flowering tea." Sounded intriguing, looked a little like a turd but hey I am daring. It was so busy here all weekend I never had a chance to try it out. Till tonight. So I put said turd in my Teaopia mug and added boiling water. By the time I decided to get my camera. This is what had grown in my cup.

That is a "for really" carnation in there. Pink too! The tea has a delicate flavour. According to the instruction I can infuse it up to 3 times. I wonder if it turns back into a turd when it dries out? Keep you posted. Right now it is girly and pretty.

We had company!!

My foyer was stuffed with shoes and boots. The house was bursting on Saturday. It was wonderful. Today I drove "Me Mum" back to Tilbury. Three hours round trip. Carl had picked her up on Saturday.
I found this verse on the internet and used it for Taylor's Birthday card.

Her birthday cake was pink & white.
Needless to say, but I will, it was a hit.

Happy Saint David's Day

All things Welsh today!!

The Red Dragon

Lovely bunch of daffodills

Our favourite Welsh Granny..Hannah ( in the middle)

Happy Birthday Corinne ..(on the left) Do I know when to have a baby or what..lol

Our three generations picture is missing my lovely Julia who couldn't make it yesterday.

My handsome sons, Evan on the left and Michael on the right.