Two Dandies or Where November Went

My doll club has these quarterly "challenges" wherein a theme is selected, and then you get to make something that embodies the theme. Sometimes it clicks with me, and sometimes I have trouble deciding what to make. This time it was Country/City. I rolled this around in my head, since it could be just one doll or two. I thought of making a topsy-turvey doll, or one that was city on the front and country on the other side. I ended up with the most obvious--Country Mouse, City Mouse, except that these guys are a little bigger, and definitely fit into the rat category. So I have Country Rat/City Rat. But, they are both so dapper that I think anyone could forgive their lineage.

At least I am ahead of the game for the next quarter. The theme for Feburary is "Music", and of course, she just has to be the "Fat Lady Singing". Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Where October Went

Every so often something comes along that catches my fancy, and I have to give it a try. Mostly I work with fabric, but I have always been intrigued with paper. I have in fact, collected papers, books about card making, rubber stamps and embossing powders, but have never managed to get myself into producing anything. Last spring, a member of my doll club came in with a photo book that she called the "Explosion Book". We all loved it, and she was called upon to teach us how to make it at one of our meetings. Of course, that was a month when I could not be there. We prevailed upon her to repeat the lesson, which she did back in September. I took myself out to the Materials Resource Center, and gathered the papers that I would use (why is it that you never have what you need in the piles of things that you have already amassed?) and started folding and gluing. It takes more time than I would like, since each book uses 6 squares and 24 triangles, plus the end boards, but I love putting together the colors--a bit like designing a small quilt. I think the end result is dramatic. Of course, I can never make just one. Maybe my musician's mind makes me want to keep doing something until I have figured out the best, most efficient way to put something together.

So, off we go to the church fair this weekend, where I am sure the books will be picked up and admired, turned over, and laid once more back my little table due to their "exorbitant" price. Hard to compete with those ladies in China who turn things out for pennies. It will be a pleasant day though, spent with friends. I confess to enjoying looking at all the different ways people choose to spend their free time, and letting them see how I spend mine.

My Space

A couple of Christmases ago I decided for my Christmas gift, I would like to have a bigger TV upstairs in our bedroom. We had a 13 incher, all the way across the room, and it was not a pleasure squinting at such a small screen. I had in mind one of those nice flat dealies that would hang on the wall and not take up any space--all very neat. Every time I would go to the store to try to pick one out, the sales child would do his best to explain about DTV, but since his real knowledge of how the whole thing would work was about equal to my own, my head would start to throb, and I would finally just walk away from the whole thing, never collecting on my Christmas present for that year. Not long after that, my daughter passed us their old TV, since they had managed to actually purchase a lovely, large flat TV of their own. So this big box was given space on MyTreasure's dresser (his concession to not having to come up with a Christmas gift), and it has worked out pretty well, since the TV has a big enough screen to enjoy whatever I am watching.

One thing of course leads to the next. The old wing chair there in the bedroom had arms that hit just in the wrong place for knitting. At one point I got a stiff shoulder from leaning sideways in order to knit. I even changed my knitting to European style because of it, but the chair really wasn't comfortable. I would often crawl under the covers and watch TV from bed, but I couldn't sit up straight enough to knit, and often fell asleep before the end of the program. I really hate it when I sleep through the last 15 minutes of a two hour murder mystery. I went on line and checked out recliners, but was never inspired by what I saw, and of course, hundreds of dollars were always involved.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, an ad came on TV. Those horrible furniture ones, where you can get it for so much less, because BOB! is such a great guy. I checked it out online, then trotted over to the store to see how the thing looked, and how it felt to sit on, and what colors were available. The saleslady was not as young as in the TV store, but about as helpful. They only had it in the store in one color, and no, they didn't have the other fabric swatches, but they were supposed to come in next week, and I should come back to see the swatches, and no they didn't have the chair there for pick-up--it would come from the warehouse, but call before you come. Yeah, right! I went home, ordered the thing online on Monday afternoon, and it was delivered on Thursday morning. It is truly comfy, the velvet is cozy, and without the arms, the knitting goes very well. I asked MyTreasure how he liked it, and he said "It's Godawful! It looks like a fainting couch!" Luckily, I am not easily offended, and I know a good thing when I see it!

Makes You Think

I got a call from a friend last night that was actually a wrong number. He thought he was speed dialling somebody else, and got me instead. The beginning of the call was pretty funny: "Hello?" "Irene?" "Albert?" "Albert????" "Who were you calling?" "Kurt." "Oh, this is Carol. This is Norm, isn't it." "Yeah--must have gotten the wrong speed dial number, and why did you think it was Albert?" "Because he calls here once in a while when he mixes up his girlfriends, and I thought it was him." "Ah, well as long as I have you on the phone, I'll tell you what's going on..."

He went on to say that he was in the hospital, and that in the morning they were going to drill into his skull to relieve the pressure from some bleeding that was going on in there. Wow. This is a big strapping healthy guy, and here he is in the hospital, all in just a day--life can turn on a dime.

It gives real weight to that overused phrase "Carpe Diem". Those of us who are blessed with the physical strength and ability to get around really need to get out there, do what we can and what we want to do while we have the ability to do it, because there is no guarantee that we will always have that blessing. The days slip by in that flowing stream of time, and they pass, whether we accomplish or not, and they do not come back to us. I take my life span for granted, expecting it to be unnaturally long, but there is no real reason to think that I will always have the good health that I enjoy now. I have had great joys in the accomplishments of my family, and great satisfaction in several of my own. I confess that I am living the life that pleases me, and do not feel unfulfilled. The future looms however, especially when I hear of the recent trials of others, and one wonders what is ahead.

Good luck, my friend. I hope all went well for you today, that the doctors were able to give you what you need. I was thinking of you, sending my prayers.

An Excellent Halloween

The trick or treaters came and went, and they had a perfect day/night for it:  cool, but not cold, nice and clear, leaves blowing down the streets.  We used to have quite a parade to our door of goulies and fairies of assorted ages, and the door bell would drive our dog crazy.  She would faithfully bark each time it rang, all through the afternoon and into the evening.  The numbers have dwindled over the years as families had fewer kids, and as the fear factor kicked in, so that kids are no longer allowed out on their own to ring those doorbells.  Our street is also a bit disconnected, and the houses are not close together, so we get less foot traffic.  We only had about 30 kids come by.

The big hit this year were little glow in the dark bracelets that I picked up last minute.  The kids were so excited to get them that they forgot to wait for the candy.  One little fairy arrayed all in layers of pink, with pink glittery shoes, put the bracelet on her wrist and said "Oh--pink!  My favorite color!"  Really?  I'm shocked!  Couldn't have been cuter!  I confess that I get a kick out of the joy the kids get out of trick or treating.  I think children have so few times that they get to make the total decision for what they are going to wear, what they want to turn themselves into for a day, and where they will go to collect, of all things, that forbidden fruit--candy.  They get to wear make-up, and come home with a bagful of the stuff that Mom will never buy in the store.

I keep a bag of decorations in the attic--nothing too exotic, but it does make our porch pretty spooky after dark.  I got belayed by daylight savings being put off a week, and most of the kids had come and gone before I could light the candles in the luminerias out on the steps.  But, we all had fun, and today is another beautiful fall day.  Maybe I'll go out and enjoy the colored leaves before they all blow away.  Happy Birthday Sue!

Rising Cost of Eating

I was asked to go shopping for our church's food pantry, since I have some expertise on knowing where to find the good buys on groceries.  What they want is "shelf food", cans and boxes that can wait until they are needed.  We all shop for our families every week, and we all know that food prices have been creeping up.  I always kept a mental list of my bargain price that I would pay for things, and when I would find it, I would buy.  So, I started out for my favorite cheapie places and hunted up the best prices on canned veggies and spaghetti sauce, pasta and rice mixes, and my trunk is pretty full.  When I came home and added up the receipts, I had only spent half of what the food pantry had allotted.  Today I will go back and spend the other half of the money--I was not able to find peanut butter at the price I wanted to pay, so will have to invest in jars on sale at one supermarket, even though they are 50% higher than the price I was looking for, and that was a sale.  Jelly also seemed to be expensive--guess I don't normally buy much jelly.  

It seems like for a lot of years food prices were pretty stable--thank heavens, because that was when I was feeding my growing bunch of five chomping mouths.  As they moved away, our grocery needs have shrunk, and the prices have gone up.  A gallon of gas was up to the price of a gallon of milk.  The gas has gone back down, but the milk has gone up even more.  And what happened to the price of a dozen eggs?  It used to rise and fall some, but all of a sudden the price doubled, and has continued to drift upward.  Don't even mention the cost of a jar of mayonnaise.  We survive on seasonal vegetables, and meat on sale that goes right into the freezer.  Soda, however, is cheaper than it ever was.  I can get a dozen cans of soda for quite a bit less than that dozen eggs.  I confess, I can only shake my head and wonder how people survive what I call the "store wars".  I see older folks who can't possibly read the fine print on the ingredients labels.  There are no individual prices on things any more, and bending down to read the shelf labels to make sure you have the item that is supposed to be on sale is nearly impossible.  Even if you can decipher the abbreviation written above the bar code, chances are that it is the wrong item above the shelf tag, since at the end of the work shift, management has the underpaid and possibly underage work staff go through the store and pull the stock forward on the shelves so that the shelves look full for the next day.  All the kids want to do is go home, so who cares if things are in the right place.

So, back to the store I go.  Then, I have to unload all this stuff at the church.  Wonder where I should leave it?  There is quite a lot, and I can't just stack it all in the hallway.  Well, I hope it helps somebody...

Las Vegas Unveiled

I didn't know what to expect from Las Vegas. I didn't know if I would enjoy it or hate it, and it proved to be a mixture of both. Our trip was great--I confess, we had a very fun time, and certainly were not bored. It is freetrade Disneyworld for adults, meaning that there is plenty of competition for your entertainment dollar, and it isn't all just going to the Disney corporation. But of course, the whole place is fake, just like Disneyworld, and it has no business being where it is.

We hit most of the big hotels, and saw about all there was to look at--shark filled aquariums in the middle of swimming pools, dolphin pools, wave pools, Italian garden pools, dancing choreographed fountains, dripping walls of water running down in restaurants and bars, coves of sinking pirate ships, Venetian canals, complete with gondals--you notice a theme here? Water, water, water, in the desert? Maybe that's their fascination, since the place is just about as desolate as the Sahara. Nobody should be living there at all, much less building this illusion of well-being.

We went out to the Hoover Dam where their water supply Lake Meade languishes in its canyon. All around the edge is a big white edge where the water level has dropped. From ground level it looks like quite a large band of white rimming the dark rocks. From the air, it is formidable. Our helicopter pilot told us the water level drop that is the white band is 120'. Nobody seems to be minding much in town--the fountains run every 15 minutes at the Bellagio, and the water walls run all the time. In the hotels there isn't any suggestion that maybe you could take a shorter shower, they serve you water in the restaurants, and there is even a place in a mall that has a rain storm falling from the ceiling every hour, for your amusement and edification. It was all a little warped.

Flying over the landscape in the helicopter really showed off the desolation of the place. It is empty rock and sand for as far as you can see. Looking down at the wild horses was a bit of a shock--what on earth do they do all day? There is nothing out there. After you leave Las Vegas, it is 20 miles of desert to the next town in any direction, and those are very small towns indeed. Coming from a lifetime of living in suburbia, where one village runs right into the next, with no visible divider, it is so hard to imagine living surrounded by all that emptiness. And I mean empty--not a tree, or a gas station, or even billboards. Not even cactus. Sand and rock. Did we really need to take it away from the Native Americans?

The hotels we visited ran the gamut from over the top luxury to pretty well used up. The least expensive was actually quite nice--I was worried that it would be ugly, but I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a true bargain--low price, and a great room. That was the Sahara, located at the north end of the strip, and definitely a recommend. Skip the Tropicana--good location, but really tired, and not inexpensive. As they said to us in London, "Give it the swerve!" We moved all around, due to the wedding that we attended on the weekend. We met up with the relatives, and a good time was had by all. Thanks for inviting us Keith and Krystle! Congratulations, and best wishes for a happy life!