Oh, What a Night!

My high school years were revisited on Saturday evening. I laughed, I cried, I clapped my hands over my head and I did the hand jive. It was emotionally cathartic. "I Walked Like A Man," and lept to my feet "Woo Hooing" with the rest of the grandparents. If you weren't a teenager in the 60's you simply can't understand what a fantastic evening this was to everyone of us who experienced this music first hand.
My darling man looked at me bemusedly and said,"But it's not really Frankie Valli." It was as close as I am going to get.
Here's a clip of the real Franki Valli, forty seven years later he can still wind up the crowd. I get a kick out of the fact that these "4 seasons" weren't even born in '63.

The end of an era.

This is closing day on my Parent's home. The treasures have been dispersed and today someone else will own the yellow brick house on the circle. I am feeling old today.

When my parents bought that house my brother's were in public school and I was a new bride.

I remember my father and I taking some things into the house prior to the movers. This was a government sponsored move and there were some thing my mother did not want to trust to anyone else other than Dad and me.

As we got out of the car in front of the house I said to him, "I bet the neighbours are peeking out the windows saying," Look at that sweet young thing with that dirty old man." Dad replied,"Oh no, look at that distinguished man with that little gold digger." My Dad was 47 at the time. I miss his wit.

I have been an emotional orphan since January but today this physical transfer of property has hit me harder than I expected. My children have said the same thing. To them this was Gran and Grampy's house and it is hard to comprehend anyone else living there.

Feast your eyes on this!

Them's be 2 stones on that scale. Breathing hard on 30 pounds lost. Looks like I will be at this all summer chipping at the stone pile. Once the crowing is done the humiliating thing is admitting I put all this weight on in the first place.
Crap. Definite plus is that clothing on sale is usually in the smaller sizes.

Summer Days and a Tartan Tale

What a gorgeous weekend. As usual far to short. Pictures of our private WWKIPD over on the knitting blog. We thought about going to a more public function but you know I deal with the general public all the time and frankly spending my day off with hoards was not my idea of relaxation. The weather was perfect and the rain never happened. What more could you ask for? Sunday I crashed in the garden to knit and Julia arrived and then stayed over for some supper with us and then I drove her home.

One major accomplishment this weekend was the "cleaning out of my closet." There is no way what fit me last winter will fit me this winter( woo hoo) so out they went. I am of the "change your clothes when you get home from school" generation so my work duds show very little wear and we laughed when I realized I have been wearing some things for about 10 years! ...or more. (cringe) I am going to treat myself to a new kilt for the winter. Mine has become very shabby. It's more than 20 years old. Now that I have my grandmother's cameo I want knit myself a nice "fruity" ( generous, gathered, lacy) jabot to wear with it. Jean made one recently and I am inspired.
I shall have to go to Elora or Fergus to buy my kilt. I know of two excellent Scottish shops in both those towns. They have the where with all to provide me with the correct tartan. ... See left.

I must tell you a story, I don't think I have told it here before. About 20 years ago I had a really nice Black Watch Tartan Kilt that had been sent from Scotland. I had friends who were going to a Tattoo in Toronto and they kindly included me in the group. In keeping with the theme so to speak I wore my best blouse and velvet jacket and my Kilt. We were to stop at a private home in Toronto for drinks and gather another couple before heading out to the Armory. As I removed my winter coat in the foyer of the home, a voice boomed behind me.
"By what right do you wear the Black Watch?" I just about jumped out of my skin. Without even thinking I turned and snapped back, "By right of birth, the Campbell's gave the Black Watch the tartan, I am a Mac Diarmid, Campbell of Breadalbane." The man stood there with his mouth open staring at me. My friend, watched this confrontation and howled with laughter. He knew the moment he saw me that this would happen and had been waiting. What he didn't know was I had the right answer. Turns out his friend was the then President of the Black Watch Society in Toronto, who had a right bee in his bonnet about who should be wearing what tartan. My Nana would have been "reet prude" of me. He laughed pounded me on the back and announced to everyone that I was a "good 'un."
~~fun memories from an other wise very difficult time in my life.

Glorious Summer Starts.

These warm presummer days do my heart good. I so dislike the cold...shudder.
The flowers are blooming and the grass is green. The humidity has been high, portent of steamy days to come. I am not complaining, believe me.
This Saturday is WWKIPD, world wide knit in public day, and I am planning to join the knitters at Little Red Mitten in St Thomas. Just hoping the rain holds off. Must call DD to see if she would like to go with me. I have already hauled out the cooler to pack lots of "bevies" and lunch.
The HST starts July 1st. and we will be paying 8% more tax on things that were exempt before. It is wicked the amount of money we pay for inept government. If the government was a business it would have gone into receivership and the CEO would have been jailed for misappropriation of funds long before this. All this and we are still in better shape than "south of the 49th."
As an outsider looking in, I observe that the "love affair" with any new President is usually over by the time he takes the oath of office. I really doubt if they would be any happier if McCain had been elected. They would have found fault with him too. It is a thankless job and it is a wonder anyone would want it.
Now, to BP and the oil spill. I refuse to believe that this could not have been settled long before now. Put your ego in your pocket ask for help from EVERYONE, try EVERYTHING and for the love of god stop talking and do something! Today!
While they are passing memos up and down the corporate ladder and wringing their hands I see the residents of Louisiana have defied the "law" and are sucking up oil off the beach with a "shop vac on steroids." It works, so why aren't they using it more? Oh right, it wasn't BP's idea.
*snort*

Oh sigh

I am trying to remember to cut myself a little slack. I just kinda opened my mouth, unintentionally stuck my foot in and swirled it around whilst trying to get it back out again. No hard feelings. I am the one cringing. Made myself look foolish. Oh crap. Everyone else will forget it and I am the one replaying in my mind what my big mouth uttered....

Slacker Too...

In this world of cyber everything. We seldom take the time to catch our breath. My children are always telling me to slow down.
I was "rushing" when I fell in January and "ratched up" my ankle. I was trying to hurry when I was clipping two huge shrubs last night. Walking up to our front door was almost like entering Sleeping Beauty's castle. One shrub had encroached upon the front window and was blocking out the light. To say that one had to be six feet high would be conservative. I am 5'3." This meant holding the clippers over my head and furiously chopping away. By the time I finished my arms were trembling and I was drenched. I gathered up all the clippings and had to admit I was done in. My arms trembled so badly last night I had to use two hands to hold a glass of water and I couldn't knit! Now that is bad. Today I am still shaky.
So, I said all that to say this. I need to cut myself some slack.
The other Susan, a gifted designer, was very eloquent and I agree with her sentiments. Please read her post from June 4th ( if you can tear your eyes away from the patterns on the sidebar)
I am a slacker, how about you?

Where did May go?

Susan, David & Paul or Susan and "the boys" as Mom referred to us. My sister in law just posted this on Facebook. It was taken back in January when we were together for Mom's funeral. Hard to believe it has been five months. I was talking to David today which is of itself not unusual but the situation was. Get this.......

My blue tooth is on crack. I programmed every one's number into my cell phone with voice commands. When I say "home" it calls my brother Paul. I double checked. There is no mistake in the programming. So today, after having this happen numerous times. I took the time to reprogram the phone. When I want to call home I say "Susan." It called my brother David in Ottawa. I give up. Stupid electronics.

I fully expect the next 2 weeks to be terribly busy at work. At present there is only GST (5%) tax on a furnace/air conditioner. Once the HST comes it the tax jumps to 13%. Bastards in high places wasting money on the backs of the tax payers again. Oh don't get me started.
Many people who are "thinking about it" will suddenly want the job done before the end of the month. Oh joy. You can't even pay for it ahead of time and then have the equipment installed after July 1st. The government will want the extra tax. OK that will do for the rant for this week.

I am a year older, basically feel the same, a few more wrinkles than last year, maybe a little shorter (lol). Thankful for my health and that I am loved. Can't ask for more than that.