Woolybuns

Hoppy New Year!

This New Year's Day of Oh Ten is starting off the year right.  A brief bit of fluffy white stuff early on followed by clearing skies and relatively warm temperatures for January in southern New England.  Warm enough for me to thaw water bottles anyway, so the bunnies all get to drink to full hydration today.  I use cleaned out cat food cans for the days when temps stay too low and I'm never sure the poor little buns get enough water since the silly things are as apt to dump the cans as drink from them.  Or let them freeze solid before trying to drink. 

That's Hop Chocolate sitting on top of her hutch today.  She wanted to scamper around rather than pose for a picture but some head scritchin' got her to sit still for long enough.  She's over due for a haircut but the weather and an issue with my left arm keeps delaying her shearing.  

And this one is Bunnie Tyler, a pluckable bun    who is a French Satin angora cross.  She was supposed to be black but as she grew, stray white hairs started showing up.  I asked her breeder about that, as I'd not seen it before.  Turns out she has the silver gene, not something I want in my herd.  So this Bunnie does not get bred.  She is actually available to a good home.  She's friendly, always there at the door to her hutch looking for attention, and produces a nice spinnable fiber.  Email me if you're interested. 

Here's to you and a grand 2010!

Ping Pong Weather

Mud season a few days ago, followed by a December plunge into the depths of the January freeze.  Caillech and Eostre are playing a seriously competitive game of ping pong.  Makes it hard for the body to adjust.  I can't sleep with the heat on, so every morning, I get up to cold.  But there is double sided nuno felted angora.  Life's good.

Sometimes What To Do Is Obvious

A grey, drizzly day with mud, snow, ice, slush all over the back yard.

                                            Left over from Christmas dinner.  

Seems like today should be homemade pea soup day.  What's your favorite recipe?

No More Saab Stories

The warranty on my Saab runs out in January.  It's about time to replace the tires, and the expensive 90,000 mile service is just around the corner.  And the fact that Saab the company itself is likely to die. I wasn't liking the way the facts were lining up.  And then there's that tax incentive for new car purchases by the end of the year.   I started looking at the possibilities.  I found my comfort zone Outback.  I went to my local Subaru dealer and test drove a 4 cylinder version.  Sweet handling!  But the engine - ehhh.  It's a 4 cylinder.  I'm apparently a 6 cylinder kinda gal.  The dealer had no 6 cylinder Outback on the lot and no expectations of getting one.  The salesman suggested I test drive a 6 cylinder Legacy because it's the same engine.  I did that.  Hated. hated. hated the Legacy handling.  But the engine had possibilities.  I really needed to test drive a 6 cylinder Outback.  Turns out, there are none.  NONE. in Connecticut.  It's apparently a very popular car in the 6 cyl version.  Lots of 4 cylinder versions available.  Cannot bring myself to buy a 4 cylinder.  Just doesn't respond the way I need it too, if I should need it to.  I expanded my search radius.  Complication.  I fell hard for the sky blue color.  Within a 2 hour radius, I found 6 cylinder Outbacks in dark blue, black, silver, white, and that most ugly to me Cypress Green.  None of them made me smile.  My car must make me smile.  I can't stand them if they don't.  No sky blue 6 cylinders available in all of New England, nor eastern New York State, nor New Jersey.  I expanded my radius.  Found one somewhat close to Philly, another one in Herndon, VA.  Called on both of them.  The Philly car had a deposit on it.  The Herndon, VA car is on loan to execs in another dealership, and promised to someone else when it gets back.  Found a dealer in RI that listed a huge inventory.  Called there.  Oh, gee. That's our "virtual" inventory.  The possibles, not what's actually on the lot.  Tip to that dealer: makes me question what other sneaky tactics you use.  I wouldn't buy ant car from you under any circumstances.  Finally found another 6 cylinder sky blue Outback near Lancaster, PA.  I called.  Yes, it's on the lot.  No, there is no deposit on it.  Yes, they'd hold it for me for long enough for me to get there.  I drafted the youngest adult in the household to take care of animals and jumped in the Saab, went to the bank for cash for the 4 1/2 hour one way drive.  And got stuck in the ATM enclosure.  Yes.  The door opened with my card to let me in but once I got my money, the door would not let me out.  No matter how hard I beat on it or cursed it.  The ATM is in a separate, outside the bank, enclosure so unless someone was watching the security camera, no one at the bank knew I was trapped in there.   At least I had my cell phone with me.  I started calling my son to tell him to call the bank.  But then some guy came out of the bank and heard me pounding on the glass.  I yelled to him through the glass, he laughed, pulled out his atm card and let me out.  The cheeky sod quite enjoyed my predicament.  I confess, it makes me laugh, too.  Back in the car, I headed out and promptly ran into a traffic jam 8 minutes from home.  And another one 25 minutes after I cleared the first one.  Sigh.  The drive from there to Allentown, PA was uneventful.  But then there was rush hour traffic.  Long lines on the exit and entrance ramps.  Finally made it to the dealership after dark.  Took about another 40 minutes to actually get into the car for a test drive. 

Oh, yeah.  The baby for me.  Horsepower.  Torque.  Turning.  Kind of like a cutting horse with it's amazingly quick and light responsiveness.  The darn thing even has an eyeglass compartment in the ceiling for my sunglasses so I won't lose them anymore.  Met with the finance guy.  We not only came to agreement on the numbers for the car, but the guy really liked the scarf I was wearing, even more when  I explained the whole nuno felt process to him, and the bunnies in the back yard, and I put it all together to create the scarf.  "I burn toast," he said.  He ordered not just one but two scarves.   So. back home, while I waited for the pesky finance details to sort themselves out, I made scarves.

So here is Sexy Alexi, named after the very cute salesman I worked with. 

Am I Freakin' Nuts?

Did I show you this skein?  I don't think so.  I think this was the last time you saw it.  It has been sitting on the back of my couch since I finished it last month.  Marinating, you know.  Except for the brief and few occasions Quinn has taken it for a walk.  Yeah.  Cringe.  The skein is cormo, silk, and angora, a 3 ply sport weight, I think.  It still needs a bath so it hasn't plumped yet.  When I started spinning it, I had no plans for it, just wanted to see if I could stand spinning as fine a single as this stuff wants to be.  I knew I didn't really want to knit that fine (still working on that pair of size 0 needles for freakishly long feet socks I started in May and I'm crazed for a good bulky knit), so I spun three bobbins of peppermint ice cream roving as a test, just to see if I liked it.  Well.  I love it.  Maybe too much because this morning it told me spin lots more and make me a ribbed cowl neck sweater.  Yeah, seems I'm  working on my long term goal skills now.  I hope the love holds up that long.

And now, just because, here's a photo of Quinn.  He's turning out to be quite a sweetheart, and a very welcome addition to the household. 

Get Your Giggle Going

Shared from Cool Funny Jokes  (but honestly?  Not all of them are).

10 Husbands, Still a Virgin

A lawyer married a woman who had previously divorced ten husbands.

On their wedding night, she told her new husband, "Please be gentle, I'm still a virgin."

"What?" said the puzzled groom.

"How can that be if you've been married ten times?"

"Well, Husband #1 was a sales representative: he kept telling me how great it was going to be.

Husband #2 was in software services: he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he'd look into it and get back to me.

Husband #3 was from field services: he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up.

Husband #4 was in telemarketing: even though he knew he had the order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver.

Husband #5 was an engineer: he understood the basic process but wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state-of-the-art method.

Husband #6 was from finance and administration: he thought he knew how, but he wasn't sure whether it was his job or not.

Husband #7 was in marketing: although he had a nice product, he was never sure how to position it.

Husband #8 was a psychologist: all he ever did was talk about it.

Husband #9 was a gynecologist: all he did was look at it.

Husband #10 was a stamp collector: all he ever did was... God! I miss him! But now that I've married you, I'm really excited!"

"Good," said the new husband, "but, why?"

"You're a lawyer. This time I know I'm gonna get screwed!"

Bunnies To Entertain The Sick

Too many friends are down with pneumonia lately.  One is asking cyber friends to entertain her.  So for Jenny, and anyone else in need of cuteness, here are some bunnies.

One of the babies from the summer litter came for a visit yesterday.  Now 4 months old, he was due for a haircut and his very responsible family wanted to learn how to clip him safely.  I brought in Moon Shadow, sister to the visiting bucklet.  Shadow was also due for clipping, so we had us a hair cuttin' party.   I  demonstrated what to do on Shadow and the buck's adult followed suit.  She picked up on the process quite quickly and both bunnies were sheared in just under an hour.  We didn't take them down to completely nekkid cause nights are a bit nippy these days.  With just a 1/4 inch of fuzz left on, the bunnies will do just fine. 

I'm thinking Smudge might be up next. I'm totally smitten by this fuzzy fella!  He's a pointed white, so has that splash of color on his nose, his ears and his feet.  With the suddenly warmer days and bunnies getting clipped, I'm tempted to breed him.  He and Hop Tart, another densely coated bunny, could produce some beautiful babies in assorted colors.  Hmmmm....

How Did I Stay Silent This Long???

I've been so busy gathering fodder for the blog, I've not had time to blog. Racked up roughly 5,000 miles on my car since end of September.  Facebook fills the need to post in in quick spurts. I've been having fun over there at Facebook, finding people I haven't seen in years: best friend from college in Wyoming, close friend in high school, great friend from having babies days, even an old boyfriend from mumblemumble  years ago.  But I've missed blogs.  Yours and mine.  I'm trying to catch up.

Quinn is settling in beautifully, now that I am home enough to help him out.  Housebreaking is going well and he is now Kiri's best friend.  Quinn is even relaxing around Murphy, and all three of the pups will play together.  Now that typepad says it's easy to add video to the blog, I may try to get footage of the raucous wrastlin' they do at my feet.  Quinn is still a bit tentative around Murphy, so his big foray into the wrastlin' is to grab Kiri's tail while she and Murphy are locked in mock combat.

 I was just on the recovery side of a cold for Rhinebeck, so don't have a lot of photos from there.  Nor did I buy much, just some Four Play from Brooks Farm Yarn.  I did take a workshop, spinning long draw.  Quite enjoyed that.  It looked like I could even do it, and I managed to fill a bobbin.  Much of the single held together when I wound it off, but there were a number of not tightly spun areas that floated off.  But, enough progress that I am encouraged and no longer intimidated.  

SAFF was a different story.  I was feeling much better and enjoyed myself even though my usual co-hort  had last minute, couldn't go difficulties.  I took a workshop at SAFF, as well, one I've wanted to play with for a long time.  Shibori dyeing.  I dyed two scarves and am quite tickled with the way they came out.  Lots of ideas now dancing and flirting with the neurons.  To dye the blue scarf, I used rubber bands as resist.  The fuscia scarf came from the arashi technique.  I ordered 50 blank silk scarves as soon as I got home and can't wait to fire up dye pots! 

I also got to cuddle with a cute dude at SAFF.  No, he did not come home with me.  What did come home with me is a bunch more Four Play from BFY.  It is my favorite non-angora yarn.

Right after I got home from SAFF, I headed up to Vermont to teach a nuno felt workshop.  What a great  group of folks at Twist O Wool guild!  I didn't get a chance to get a photo of folks with finished scarves, dang it all!  But they were a very creative group.

In the midst of all this fibery stuff, I managed to squeeze in a trip to Maine to visit Mum and my sister.  Weather cooperated beautifully and we had a November picnic on the beach a short stroll from my sister's house.  As I left Maine, I finally managed to get a photo of a favorite spot less than a mile from Mum's house.

Yes.  I do know I am extremely lucky to be able to do all of this. 

The Busy Month

I've been out of state about as much as I've been in state this October, 2 fiber festivals, spinning guild, an amazing show in DC, connecting with an old friend, and I'll be leaving again this morning, this time to Maine.  But in the midst of all this fun travel and connecting with old friends stuff, something else  happened and I want to share it with you.  Meet Ben, my new little grandson, born Sunday, Oct. 25, weighing in at 7 pounds 6 ounces, 20.5 inches long.

New little babies are one of life's sweetest treasures.

Dear Staples Honcho In Charge Of Coyly Cheating The Customer

You just lost a customer over ten cents. All I needed was 10 copies of one page. The price for the service is 9 cents per page. But you installed that cash card machine that only takes even dollar amounts and won't take plain old cash anymore. On the surface, that machine might seem to be a convenience for the customer and a cost cutter for the store since neither now have to bother with employees interacting with customers. But I did notice in order to use the machine, I have to overload the card with money that you promise I can spend anywhere else in the store. Clever. For you. For me? Yes, I noticed that requires I give you money up front, money I may prefer to spend elsewhere but you've already got it so it doesn't matter if someone else has a better deal or I am conveniently in front of a competitor. You've already got my money, sitting there earning you interest but just tied up for me.  Brilliant on your end, but oh so offensive in it's effect on me. Thank you for helping me make a decision.  I am now planning to purchase a nice printer with copy capabilities. From one of your competitors.

With utmost sincerity from a former customer,

Chris