Rambling on a Sunday

    My hands hurt. See, I joined a knitting group on facebook, read through all through all their rules and nonsense, and now my hands hurt from clenching them and not typing smart ass response comments to some of the stupidest things I have ever read.


    If I do comment, I'd for sure be thrown out of the group and banned for life. I mean, seriously? Someone buys a  36" circular needle and wants to know if she can make a baby hat with it??? What baby does she know that has a head that big??


    At least I can vent here. In other news, my camera battery is dead. My Jeep is still in the hospital. My pool rehab, however, is coming along nicely! I am not allowed to post any photos of that, however. Just take my word for it, Club Scheffler will be the place to go swimming next year! I just hope it's all done by my birthday, as my one wish is to swim in my pool on that day. They have 27 days until then. And I'm watching. So it will be done just in time to close it for the season. But no matter how cold the water is, I want to swim on my birthday.


    We will have a new dark liner, and steps to get into the pool. We will have a new surround/walkway and even a new fence around the pool. It's all very exciting. I can't wait until it's all done!


    As far as knitting goes, I am plugging away on two 10 Stitch Blankets, and occasionally pick up one of the many other WIPs that are in a time-out. I have plans to make a very unique, crocheted scarf that a friend designed. I brought out all of my Malabrigo worsted weight wool that I could find in my stash, just for this project. I just need to get out my swift and ball winder and get to work.
  

Errands and such

    Today I spent the day running errands, most of which I could do right from my chair. I finalized the baby shower by calling the restaurant and giving them the final guest count and menu choices.


    I took a call from my pulmonary specialist's assistant, and made appointments for a CAT scan and a follow-up visit. I also made more laundry sauce today.


    As I re-read the recipe, to make sure I do it right, I read some of the comments on the original post. If you really read the entire thing, it tells you explicitly that you cannot make substitutions in ingredients, or mason jar size, or anything. You have to do it exactly as written. Yet there are yahoos out there who don't follow the directions, and ask why it didn't turn out right. It's not like it's that complicated, it has only three ingredients, besides the water. I shake my head. It just boggles the mind.


    Anyway, I also went out today, to visit with a friend while she was at karate with her daughter. That didn't last long, as she ended up leaving, with the intention of picking said daughter up later. She didn't feel like sitting there for three hours today. I don't blame her. When I do it, it's strictly on a volunteer basis. I've already put in my time there.


    Before she left, we went to the supermarket. And as long as I was there, I thought I would order the cake for this weekends baby shower. So, the cake is now ordered. I hope everyone enjoys it! I'm really looking forward to this shower, and meeting some of my daughter's in-laws that I haven't met yet.


    At one point this morning, I remembered to call my mom, since today is her 81st birthday. I couldn't make dinner with her and Sara, but I am going to spend the day with her soon, and we'll do lunch.


    In between phone calls and errands, I got some knitting done as well. I also plan on doing more after dinner while watching TV with the Hubs. This blanket is never going to get done. I still have shower gifts to wrap, and edgings to crochet, and buttons to sew on too!


    Sometimes I feel that it never ends. I just can't wait for this baby to come!

My handsome grandson has a birthday

    That's right, and it was his third. Birthday, that is. He is such a cutie. His big sister is also gorgeous, but this one isn't about her. Here's Mason in his birthday shirt:

    Such a handsome young man! And here he is in the present that his Grandpa Mike and I got for him, front view:

    And back view:

    He wasn't so excited until I told him that sometime Grandpa Mike will ride his motorcycle over so he can see it! He can even sit on it! I know the jacket is a bit big, but the great thing about kids is that they grow so fast. And to think I was worried that it would be too small....

A Story in Pictures

    Yesterday was my birthday. I had a really nice, quiet day with my beloved Hubs. Lots of friends on facebook wished me a happy birthday. My very good friend Kim H. and her Cherub actually made me a birthday cake! Here are some photos I took, just a little while ago:

    This cake is really good! We were too stuffed after dinner last night to sample it. Then I spent most of the day today with my daughter, who is now visibly pregnant! We went to Babies R Us so she could work on her registry.


    Then we went out to lunch, where I unexpectedly ran into a former friend! We exchanged greetings and it was all friendly. I wonder if we can be friends again. I've kind of missed her. We'll just have to wait and see what develops.


    I had some thoughts about getting older. After all, I'm nearly pushing 60 now, and it really sucks. But no matter how old I get, my handsome Hubs will always be my young stud.


    Excuse me, I have to go finish my cake....

First Impressions

    Last month was my Hubs' birthday. I am friends with some of his friends from childhood on facebook.  One of them contacted me, and said she had birthday gift for him, and to keep it a surprise.


    We arranged to meet. Thankfully it was on a day that Hubs was working; I might have had trouble explaining exactly why I needed to go to Stewarts at a certain time that day. It was very exciting for me to finally meet someone who knew Hubs when he was a child. His mom wouldn't talk about it. She had no stories for me of any cute things he did, or trouble he got into.


    I'm afraid I was a little over excited when I met up with her that day. Sometimes I tend to do that. I might have come off as a little hyper. But I was so excited. I realized shortly afterwards that that was how I had appeared. And I feel bad that I made a non-favorable first impression. I would like to become friends with this woman, and possibly meet other people from Hubs' past. She was very nice, after all. And if she's reading this, I hope she sends me another personal message and gives me another chance.

A little of this, a little of that

    Today, I exercised my 2nd amendment rights, and shot at some targets with Hubs. It was fun, and we had a good time. He says I did pretty good.


    I have a feeling, deep in my gut, that the rest of this year is going to be the longest in history. It's moving so slowly right now, I can't stand it. There are reasons why, which I cannot discuss. My mind is absolutely aflame with ideas of things to create. Maybe I should write them down so I don't forget them.


    I got to spend a few hours today with my BKF (best kid friend) and her mom. We had a good time, hanging out and then going to the mall to build a bear. It was so tempting to buy a bear, bunny, or monkey, but I managed to not splurge. This time.


    Today is also my bestest friends birthday!  She turned the big 5 - 0, and she doesn't look like it at all! Her family had set up a surprise for her, and I hope it worked out as planned. I think I was the first of what I hope was many.


    I haven't knit traditionally today, but I have been working on a little something on one of those knitting loom things. I will let you know how that works out.


    I think it's time for me to say goodnight, Gracie, as I need to go pour myself another drink.

A Birthday in the Family

  

    Today is a very special day. 23 years ago tonight, my last child was born. How well I remember that day. It was Halloween, 1989. That morning, I was bored, and feeling like a whale, so I decided to go for a walk. Just up the way, there was a street that was a very steep hill that went up and round behind the house where we were living.


     I made my way up that hill, stood for a while, then made my way down. I like to think that walking up and down that hill is what brought on my labor. Later that afternoon, I started cramping, and called Hubs, who was working at the garage up in Hyde Park. He jumped in the car, a little white VW Rabbit, and raced home. I believe he made it in under 30 minutes. It had started raining, and the roads were pretty wet. That drive normally took about 45 minutes!


     He scooped me up, and off we set down the Taconic Parkway, which was retaining the water due to the high curbs. You see, the hospital was down in Cold Spring, and that was quite a ride too.  I knew it would take a while to get there, that's why I didn't wait to call Hubs. Besides the fact that this was my third child, so hopefully labor wouldn't be too long.


    I don't remember how long my labor was, exactly, but I do remember having to give birth in the labor room, because someone had just delivered in the delivery room, and there wasn't time to clean it for me. That was disappointing, because they had a birthing chair in there, that I had been eager to try.


    By a quirk of fate, the new daddy of the couple who had the baby just before us was am old friend of Hubs'! And since they were also from Hyde Park, our kids went to school together, and are still friends!


   There is something I feel might be confusing, so let me clear it up. At the time, we were living in Sylvan Lake, with Hubs' parents, so we could save money for a house. Hubs was working in Hyde Park, and the hospital was in Cold Spring. We lived in Sylvan Lake for a little less than a year. We moved into our current house the 4th of July weekend of 1990.


    I have no baby pictures of Jesse Michael in my laptop, but he was born with little tufts of hair on his shoulders, and the tops of his ears. Fitting for a Halloween baby, don'tcha think? I remember the nurses trying to get me to name him Boris. No way. He was also the only boy born that day in that hospital.


   My youngest son has grown up to be a very good person. I am prouder of him than I can put into words. As I was thinking about what I wanted to say here, I wondered why this particular birthday was special. I think it's because it's the first birthday that he's out in the world, living away from us.


    For those few of you who will see and talk to my son today (you know who you are...), please remember: what is said in the blog, stays in the blog.


    Apologies for the long length of today's post. I guess I had a lot to say. I'm sure you can forgive proud Mama Scheff.  P.S. He's the kid on the left in the photo at the top of the post, with sister Sara and brother James.

Stitch n Bitch Report

   This morning, we had our weekly get-together, but with a change of venue. We met this week at the Eveready Diner, to celebrate Jan's birthday. We had a lovely breakfast indeed.


    This week, there were five of us. Jan was working on her knitted beaded shawl, which is gorgeous now that it's large enough to see the pattern developing; Kim was working a second sock, Bonny happily crocheted away on an amigurumi (sp?) Christmas elf-looking thing. He was cute!


    Cheryl brought a project to work on, but had lost her place, and left her pattern home, so she just got to eat and chat. Me? I have been working on one side of the handle of the big purse, that's to be felted. This is, for sure, the boring part. But I shall persevere!


      

A Postal Rant... Or, The Really Late Birthday Present

    About 9 days ago, I ordered a beautiful, perfectly me, bracelet from a website I found, ebracelets.com. I chose the regular mail option for shipping, because the other choices, FedEx or UPS, cost more than the bracelet did.


   I received my confirmation email on Monday, one week ago, saying that I should receive my package in 1 - 3 days. I made myself wait until Thursday to go to the Post Office and check. There was no package. I even went up to the counter and asked the nice postal clerk, who knows me, to check for me. Still no package.


   When I got home, I re-opened the email, and found a tracking link. This is the most recent tracking info, from Friday night.

    At the bottom, you can see they shipped it from Westport CT. on 8/28. It only took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to Jersey City, NJ. The line above that one shows when it left Jersey City. My question would be WHY THE FRACK DID IT NEED TO SIT IN FRACKING JERSEY CITY FOR 60 FRACKING HOURS??


    Following the chart up one more line, we see that it took another 22 hours to get to another city in NJ, Kearny, where it sat for a mere 5 minutes. That is the last time it was tracked. Friday fracking night. Just for shits and giggles, I checked the mail again on Saturday. My package still wasn't there.


   Being justifiably upset, I sent off an email to the bracelet company. I realize it's not really their fault, but an unhappy customer might not order from them again. The response I got was disappointing, to say the least. The owner patted himself on the back for shipping my package so quickly, "YAY team", and stated it's not his  fault if the mail is slow. He also sort of said it was more my own fault, since I chose the shipping method. Huh?


    I have always had pretty good luck with the Postal Service in general, with the exception of our local Post Office. See one of my very early posts for that story. This whole thing has left a very bad taste in my mouth, and I will probably not order from them again. I feel the least they could have done was appologise, and perhaps offer free upgraded shipping on my next order.


    This bracelet was my birthday present to myself. The earliest I will get it will be tomorrow, 5 days after my birthday. My advice to you all is IF you decide to order an awesome bracelet from ebracelets.com, go for the upgraded shipping. It seems it might just be worth it, to not get so aggravated.

New Project Started!

    Before my birthday lunch with son Jesse and his girlfriend Julie, I had time to hit the Hobby Lobby store in Poughkeepsie. I went there because they are the only store in the entire area that carries the Bernat Baby Coordinates yarn, in the colors I need, for the blanket I am going to make. By the way, Hubs requested I stick to the original design of the blanket, the 12 pointed star.


    The aforementioned colors are: white, yellow, peach, soft pink, lavender, soft blue, and soft green. 1 skein each of the white and yellow, 2 each of the rest. I also got some different yarn, enough for a second blanket, of a different design. But also one that I have made many, many times. I thought it was only fair to make both.


   I was done buying yarn early, so I went to the restaurant and sat crocheting in the parking lot until the kids got there. I finished the chain of 152, and the first row of single crochet while I waited.


    We had a very nice lunch! It was great to hear the adventures of the new kitten in their house. I hope they find a new name for him soon, as I don't think Pesto really fits his personality. Jess and I agreed that they should ask his grandma, my mom, as she is a genius at naming animals. I can't wait to hear what she comes up with.

  Perhaps by tomorrow, I will have taken photos of my birthday presents, and the progress on the 1st baby blanket!

Not Just Another Day

    No, it wasn't. Today was my birthday. I had a pretty good one, nice and quiet, just like I prefer. I got to hang out with Hubs this morning, then tuck him into bed. I babysat for Miss Malia, then later on, after Hubs went to work, My good friend Kim and her Cherub came over.


    Cherub swam, and performed a Vegas showgirl act while wearing my lemon slice float on her head. Hilarious! Kim and I laughed alot at that one. Due to the cooler temperatures at night recently, our pool water temp has plummeted down to about 75 degrees. It was up to 82 degrees at its warmest.


   It was very sweet that Kim and Cherub came bearing birthday gifts! Knowing my love of hedgehogs, Cherub presented me with a very adorable figurine, and Kim outdid herself with the triquetra shaped wind chimes. I will probably put them in my new craft room. They are so very cool, and of course, match my new tattoo! Oh, and Cherub made me a birthday card too!


    After they left, I made myself some dinner, then went over to friend Bonny's house. She had invited me over to hang out with her by the fire pit. Since it seemed like it was gonna be chilly, I went! We always have a good time. I wasn't able to go last night, as I wasn't feeling very well. Thankfully I had recovered enough today, that I was able to go.


    All in all, it was a nice quiet birthday. I'm not one for excitement any more, I guess that's what comes with getting older.


    I am still on a crafting break. There is nothing that I feel the need to create at this time. However, a very good friend of daughter Sara's is expecting, so I am mentally gearing up for crocheting another couple of baby blankets! Unfortunately, I have to get the yarn from my NOT favorite store, Hobby Lobby. Oh well, the things we do for the ones we love!