The Madness is a-Comin'

Around here, March means Madness. No, not basketball - SOCKS! The 5th Annual Sock Madness begins sometime between the 1st and the 15th of March. Knitters from all over the world are sharpening their knitting skills, stocking up on freezer meals, choosing yarns, and generally getting pumped for the game! We haven't been told yet exactly when the game starts. But the moderators have given us a tentative listing of the yarns used by both the designers and the test-knitters. Given that list, I've pulled yarns from my own stash and will hopefully stick with my original choices once the patterns are released. 5 of the socks are single yarn socks - YEAH! 3 of them are multi-colour socks. Multi-colour socks present a problem - mainlyof tension when changing colours- but I've done several pairs of competition socks using more than one colour so it doesn't scare me much anymore.

Starting at the bottom left and working clockwise we have a variegated pink/grey/white. Then a variegated blue/green/yellow/white. That reddish one at the top left is called Killer Tomatoes - variegated red/green/yellow/orange. Then there is a set of pond scum green teamed with purple/orange/black/white. In the top right we have a semi-solid in Spring Green, under that is a semi-solid in Ginger and a variegated in Popsicle. In the middle bottom is a denim blue paired with a variegated blue/green/pale yellow. Finally, in the middle is a lovely yarn called Army Girl - a camouflage with a bit of pink sneaked in. All-in-all, I'm pretty pleased with my choices and hope I can stick with these once the patterns are released.

Will keep you posted once the Madness starts.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

A Sale and a Tam-O-Shanter

I'm not sure if everyone has heard but one of the major bookstores here in the U.S. has filed for bankruptcy and is closing 200 of its many stores throughout the country. I got an email this morning, telling me that the store in Springfield (the nearest big city to us) is closing and that everything in the store, with few exceptions, is on sale at a nice discount. Since I recieved a gift card from them at Christmas and hadn't used it yet, I thought I'd drive into town and see if I could find anything to spend it on. I asked John if he'd like to come with me - the idea was that he could go to the Man Store and I could go to the bookstore and then we could have a nice lunch out. Firstly, it's a good thing he was planning on dropping me off and then driving across the street to the Man Store (Lowe's) - there was not one single parking place in the area of the bookstore. I told him that I knew exactly what I wanted and that he should hurry at his errand and come pick me up. And off we went in our two directions. Immediately upon entering the store, I realized that I shoudl call him and let him off the hook for hurrying. I went thru the store and picked up everything I wanted, then got in line and called him. Here is a bit of the conversation:

Me: Hi, Honey...just wanted to tell you that I'm in line. You probably ought to take your time coming to get me...I think there's probably an hour and a half till I get to the register.
John: Are you serious? I can take my time at the Man Store?
Me: Yeah, I'll call you if I get done any faster.

I was standing at the very back of the store, at the back of the line, looking toward the entrance. You can see from the picture that there were literally hundreds of people in front of me - IN LINE! I think it probably took about an hour to get to the serpentine part of the line at the front near the registers. I called John almost exactly an hour later and told him I was 5 people from the front of the line and he might want to consider starting to drive over to get me. He was actually arriving at the store as we spoke. We then went to a lovely restaurant and had lunch at 2:30 in the afternoon. We both deserved it!

On a cheerier note, I've been knitting on a year-long Knit-a-long project since the beginning of January. The finished project will be a hooded celtic cape, telling the story of an Irish girl and her country. Along with the monthly distributions of the next parts of the cape, the designer has included accessories - socks, mittens, gauntlets, hat, shawl, elbow-length gloves, and a tam. I've never knit a tam before and decided to try one. I love this tam!

The pattern is really easy and intuitive....a lovely knit!

You know, they say that some folks have heads made for hats and some don't. I honestly don't know if I have a head made for hats but I really like this hat.

Thanks to my Mr. Wonderful for the photos....

And thanks to you for stopping by.

Ten on Tuesday

This week's challenge was to name our top ten Oscar winning movies....here goes:

1. 1961 - West Side Story - A wonderful remake of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

2. 1964 - My Fair Lady - I'd love to see if the rain in Spain really does fall mainly on the plain!

3. 1965 - The Sound of Music - didn't every little girl fall in love with Julie Andrews? I did!

4. 1968 - Oliver - "Please sir, I'd like some more".

5. 1958 - Gigi - Louis Jordan at his most musical.

6. 1951 - An American in Paris - my 2nd favorite city in the world.

7. 1994 - Forrest Gump - If life is like a box of chocolates, why did mine only get nuts?

8. 1957 - Bridge on the River Kwai - watched this the first time with my Dad - have love it since.

9. 1990 - Dances with Wolves - Not normally a lover of western movies but this one got to me.

10 1939 - Gone With the Wind - "Oh, Miss Scarlett, I don't know nothn' 'bout birthin' no babies."

It was hard to cut it off at 10 so here are another 3 that really should have been included...as above, no real order to these.

11. 1995 - Braveheart - love me some early-years Mel Gibson.

12. 1989 - Driving Miss Daisy - Anything with Morgan Freeman or Jessica Tandy.

13. 1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth - 2 words - Charlton Heston!

Thanks for stopping by.

Close Call

You've probably seen on the news that we're having some challenging weather the past week or so. Tuesday and Wednesday, the library was closed and John didn't even go to work. He made it to work on Thursday but the library remained closed. We both went to work on Friday. And therein lies the problem!

Roads had been somewhat cleared of snow all the way into town. I drove in with no problems in the morning. Got off work at 3:00 and headed, carefully, toward home. The road home is mostly paved, with the final mile and a half gravel. Once I'd turned onto the gravel road, there was only one more obstacle before I felt I'd made it home fine.

There is a little knoll about 50 feet before the final turn onto our road. Not a steep hill but one that commands respect from all drivers in winter weather. I got to the top of the knoll and slowed down - a lot- and began my descent...a bit faster, a bit faster....tapped the brakes and began the slide! Crap!!! Still not too fast, so decided I could make the turn onto our road. NOT! Should have just straightened the wheel and gone on past the road and let the straight part slow me down, then backed up to the turn. Instead, I began to slide across the road into a stand of trees. Yanked the wheel to the right to miss the trees and went sideways. And stopped! Once I'd caught my breath and made sure my heart was still beating, I put the car into gear and tried to back out - not happening. Okay, how about forward? Yeah, that works - for about 10 feet until I got stuck in a drift of snow. No backing out, no going forward. AND the car is tipped a bit sideways.

Called John and he left work immediately to come rescue me and the car. It takes him about 45 minutes to get home and it was getting cold and starting to snow again. One of our neighbors was about 5 houses down from where I was so I called her to come get me and take me home. God Bless her!!! John got home and went to dig out the car, having called our other neighbor (my office partner, John ) who came with his tractor to help dig me out. Less than 1/2 hour later, the car was in the garage- none the worse for wear.

Lesson learned - slow up before going down the knoll in the winter, go straight and then back up to turn onto our road, wear sturdier shoes so you can walk home if necessary!

We are expecting even more snowy weather tomorrow thru Tuesday - Yeah (she said weakly and with dripping sarcasm).

Thanks for stopping by.

Blizzard!

That's what the weathercasters are calling it. They said they checked the archives and they've never used that word for winter weather here in the Ozarks-EVER! They used the word yesterday. The library is closed today but it's my day off anyway. John did not go into work today. We are not sure if we can either of us get to work tomorrow. They are telling us that we might get as much as 20" of snow. I took pictures this morning, before the really heavy snow started. The first one is just outside the front door - see the front walkway there? Next you have the view outside the morning room window. The cows are at the hay ring, loading up on energy to keep themselves warm. Just after I took that picture, they made their way to the barn. John and our neighbor put extra hay out for them on Sunday nite. And finally, the back deck.

John just came in and the snow is coming down in huge flakes. And really fast. And it's so very cold! They tell us that our high tomorrow will be 13 degrees with a windchilll of -3...brrrrrr.

We've got plenty of milk, soda, beer, food, warmth, batteries, dvd's, and knitting to keep us happy here. But I sure do miss California weather...

Thanks for stopping by.