Woolybuns

Something Special This Way Came

Oh, lucky me!  I get to keep the lovelies.  Remember Pay It Forward?  I happened upon a Fiber Artist Extraordinaire's invitation to participate in time to be one of her three recipients.  She sets a very high bar indeed.  I read her post about finishing the set and yes, of course my heart went pitty pat knowing I had a one in three chance of being the recipient.  The scarf and mitts are just beautiful!  Anne's photos capture the color a bit better than mine, but still not quite the full gentle blend of color that is her Nantucket.  The beauty of this set does not stop with the color.  Oh, no.  There is also the yarn.  Merino, silk and angora.  Pure, glorious, indulgent luxury.  And then there is the pattern itself, Paris-Roubaix from another Fiber Artist Extraordinaire Anne.  Texture which reverses to a whole new pattern.  And finally, there is the knitting itself.  Pure, unadulterated poetry.  All of this in one gift.  I will wear this set often and be inspired to good everytime. 

Thank you, Anne.

Mom Always Says Company Is Like Fish

After three days, it stinks.  Heh.  I had two days of company, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Some of the company was expected - family get together to celebrate a birthday.  Some folks showed up early, and one showed up unexpectedly, after the birthday gathering.  That would be one of the many sisters.  She dropped one of her kids off in Boston, then headed for home, going right past me, so she took a break and spent the night.  An unexpected bonus.  But all the folks in and out meant I didn't get to felt over the weekend like I planned, so I don't have a great photo of my new idea.  I do have what feels like a nasty bruise but I'm not flexible enough to take a look at it.  Yeah.  I took another tumble down some stairs.  Feet out from under me, whomp!  Hard landing on the edge of the top step and then whoops, thumpthumpthump riding my butt to the bottom of the stairs.  At least this time, it was the carpeted stairs.  And I've had some really good chiropractic adjustments so the old bones are not as unhappy as they were the last time.  But this falling down stairs has gotten old.  My goal: no more of that.

Before all that, though, I had a great visit with CC at the barn, our first training session since I broke my finger.  I gave her mane a thorough detangle, brushed her all pretty, bitted her up and longed her in the arena.  She hasn't had a bit in her mouth for a long time, so she did the mouth wide open yuckie get it outta there mouthy thing a lot.  About 6 minutes into the session, I got full attention, a good transition from trot to walk, and her mouth closed all at once.  Good girl!  Carrot and end of session.  I hope to get out there again today to follow up on that.  And maybe get a better picture of CC cause she's not as wild as that look suggests.

Pay Attention!

I've never posted a quiz here partly because I'm - ahem - technologically challenged (technology can make you feel reeeeeaaaallllly dumb when you don't get it and it seems everyone else does), and partly because really, the quizzes tend to be so limited in the response choices that the over all isn't particularly valid.  But this one... heh... caught my attention.  And just to prove point one up there, I cannot get it to cut and paste and then show up in proper format.  Sometimes, I'm just hopeless.  I've learned to let that amuse me and get to my point some other way.  My quiz results:

What attention span? It's difficult for anything to keep your interest.
You are so easily distracted, it's a wonder you could finish this quiz!
You find focusing a challenge. Your mind tends to wander to the strangest places.

While it may be hard for you to complete tasks, you're very creative.
You are easily inspired, and you are often thinking of something interesting.
The world would be a boring place without people like you.

Some of that is accurate, like where my mind wanders, finding inspiration everywhere (like those strangest places), and I am easily distracted.  But it is not difficult for things to keep my interest.  In fact, when something does catch my attention, I tend to hyper focus.  That serves me well for writing, felting, housebreaking puppies, training my horse - things that are important to me

The results are not why I posted, though.  Attention is a topic of strong interest to me, specifically ADD and ADHD.  Yeah, I probably am.  At least one of my kids, too.  We don't medicate it out o f existence because honestly, it if were a choice, I would choose these attentional attributes.  Note: I did not say deficits.  As far as I can tell, ADD is really a personality type, not something gone wrong.  And it is not the inability to pay attention.  Quite the opposite.  It's noticing everything, and being fascinated by so much of what you notice, that causes distraction. That's why mindless knitting works to keep me on task: it provides kind of a white noise to block out extraneous stimuli.  ADD/ADHD's popularity as a diagnosis comes from the pot of gold to be had by labeling anything a disorder and proclaiming it requires expensive meds and long term professional management.  Now, before you off spouting how little I know about this and I don't know what it's like to have a kid completely out of control and ... sputter, sputter. Yeah.  I do know.  I also know this is an issues of Free Spirit vs Control Freak.  Both FSs and CFs come in nice models and not so nice models.  The problem is the inability of FS and CF to understand each other.  It's the hard wiring.  FS just does not compute in a CF world.  CF tries to control FS.  And FS responds by figuring out CF's buttons and pushing liberally, which makes CF try to control all the more, and so on.  Think strict rule enforcing high school principal and rebellious teenager.  If it weren't such a damaging relationship, it would be quite comical.  Worse is FS toddler with CF parent.  That pairing is very sad, because it sets into motion what becomes a fully dysfunctional, destructive pattern of behavior in the child.  It's one way to create a criminal.  FS children are like forsythia bushes.  Give them space and plenty of supportive nutrients, they will grow healthy, beautifully green and gracefully arching branches which burst with enthusiastic golden blooms, then readily spread that delight by taking root wherever they land.  Force that plant into a formal hedge to be chopped into a confined shape once a year and you get a half dead stubby bush with virtually no bloom.  All those tantrums and fits kids "identified" as ADD/ADHD go through?  Survival instinct kicking in.  Without the freedom to grow and bloom as nature intended, you're dead inside.  Control Freaks can keep things running and organized and certainly we need that, but Free Spirits create things like muppets, music, and electricity.  Would you like to live in a world without those things? 

When Your Cream Curdles, Make It A Good Day Anyway

Early Saturday morning rise, the house and surrounding neighborhood is quiet, outside air is cleansed, refreshed and inviting, furry critters all fed, watered and even a little bit loved on.  Time to sit, relax with a good cuppa tea, and consider the possibilities for the unfolding day.  The tea kettle whistled and I went through the normal routine: heat a favorite mug with freshly boiled water, then replace that with fresh boiling water to coax maximum flavor out of the tea leaves, add a bit of sugar, then some cream (well, really it's Half and Half).   The cream curdled as soon as it hit the tea.  Well, damn.  I just bought the stuff, opened it yesterday morning.  It's not a big deal, I can just take a quick stroll to the convenience store practically in my front yard.  But there I stood in the comfy cottons I threw on, barefoot and ready to relax.  That quick stroll early Saturday morning means getting fully dressed cause the crowd there all arrives in assorted manly vehicles packed with all those tools and testosterone.  Being noticed and admired - c'mon, admit it - we grrls like it.  But being the only woman around in that crowd?  Yeah.  The ewwww factor can be strong.  Makes clothing choice important.  Desire for a good cuppa is stronger than the desire to sit in commando comfort.  Off I went.  And ya know? The walking was good.  So good that as soon as I finish this lovely cuppa, the puppy girls and I are gonna go gallivant around the neighborhood and breathe in all that sweetness out there.

And then it's time to felt. 

Ulp

Got my laptop back. Good news: it's all fixed, and improved as well, with latest firewall and anti-virus stuff, updated browser, optimized in every way.  It was a 7 hour repair effort, with the damage the worst the fixer has ever seen.  Bad news: the problem was 37 separate viruses, about half of them trojans.  The suspicion is that an accidental click on the wrong website (note to self: no more  surfing when I'm falling asleep)  zapped it with so many competing viruses that they killed the machine faster than data could be mined.  Time will tell if any bank account info has been stolen, though that's not likely as I don't store account numbers on my computer.  I'm canceling my debit card and getting a new one.  And changing passwords.    Keep your fingers crossed that this is the end of the trouble.

All about Meme

I've seen this one floating around for a while and enjoyed reading everyone else's responses so thought why not?

1. Who was your first prom date? My first boyfriend.  I met him when I was 16 and he was 20.  Obviously we didn't go to high school together but we did meet there.  By the time senior prom arrived 2 years later, he had asked me to marry him, I said yes, we kept it a secret, then he was drafted and joined the Air Force.  He got back for the prom about 2 hours before the dance.  I could tell something was up.  He told me he had another girlfriend near the base, he'd had to take her for an abortion, but he preferred me, wanted me to accept an engagement ring and make everything all official, even though he had 3 more years in the AF and I had 4 years of college.  The ultimatum: if I didn't accept the ring, he was offering it to his little whore.  Yeah, fond memories.  My answer was no.
   
2. Do you still talk to your first love?  Ha!  Turns out he wasn't worth talking to then so, no.  
3. What was your first alcoholic drink?  Sipped something from a bottle left out after one of my parents' parties at our house.  Don't remember specifically.  Didn't like it, didn't drink again until I was legal, on my 21st birthday after hiking back up to the top of the Grand Canyon.  I think it was a whiskey and coke to go with the Hostess Snowball someone stuck a match in. Do I know how to party or what!
4. What was your first job? Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips, counter help, which meant cleaning off a lot of tables and learning that a lot of guys think that's an invitation to pinch.  I had to learn to control my fists, but the boss was ok with my lashing out verbally.
5. What was your first car?  I learned to drive on a 1962 baby blue Chevy Impala convertible, the family car my folks had forever, recycling it through each of us girls.  First car I ever bought was a 1968 Mustang, 3 speed.  Loved that car!
6. Who was the first person to text you today?  I don't text, do not see the appeal.
   
7. Who is the first person you thought of this morning?  Mmmmmm.  No one you know.
   
8. Who was your first grade teacher?  Nuts, I can't remember her name, but I adored her.  She had a farm and we had a class field trip there once. 
   
9. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane? My first adventure by myself, off to college in Wyoming.  I don't remember if the flight took off from Hartford or New York, but it stopped in Denver, where I switched from the big jet, to a prop plane which sort of did a milk run from Denver to Cody, Wyoming, 5 stops between the two places.  Which means as soon as we reached altitude, it was time to descend.  I was one of only 3 passengers who did not need the little bag.
   
10. Who was your first best friend and are you still friends? I think I didn't have a best friend until high school.  All those sisters, ya know?  Her name is Debbie and we stayed friends until I asked her to be a reference for my job with the IRS when I was about 35.  Her response: I'll fill out the form but then we can't be friends anymore.  I've never seen her since. 
    
11. What was your first sport played?  Probably kickball or kick the can, if those qualify.  I'm not a sports type.  Give me a horse any day.
    
12. Where was your first sleepover?   Debbie's house.
13. Who was the first person you talked to this morning? My daughter.  
14. Whose wedding were you first in? My oldest sister Amy.  My poor parents: not only did they have to foot the bill for the wedding but also for all those bridesmaid's dresses for all us daughters, and the hairdresser for each of us. 
    
15. What was the first thing you did this morning? Take the dogs out to pee in the rain.
16. What was the first concert you went to? Linda Ronstadt.
    
17. What was your first tattoo or piercing? My ears, when I was an older teenager.  Dad did it.  The holes were not even so I didn't tell him but let them close up then went to someone else, an earring store, I think.  Those eventually closed up too when I found out how much babies love shiny dangly things.  Nothing else pierced or tattooed.  That could change.
18. What was the first foreign country you went to?   Mexico.  Guys pinch there, too.
    
19. What was your first run in with the law ?  Speeding ticket somewhere in the mountains of Colorado.  My car had Texas plates.  My driver's license was still from my home state of Connecticut.  The Colorado state cop asked why the two states.  I explained I was in the Air Force, had just left tech school in Texas headed for my duty station in MD but stopping to visit a friend in Denver first, and that my residence was still legally Connecticut.  He said, "oh.  Sorry.  I already called the ticket in.  If I'd known you weren't from Texas, I wouldn't have given you a ticket."  I thought it best not to tell him the reason I was doing 75 was because my foot hurt and I slowed down to adjust one of my shoes.
20. When was your first detention?  I never got detention.  Thrown out of class once for arriving late in a fit of giggling, but that's about the biggest discipline problem I was in school.  
21. What was the first state you lived in? Massachusetts.
22. Who was the first person to break your heart?  See prom story.
    
23. Who was your first roommate? Jaci.  She was a neat freak.  I am not.  But we both drove a Mustang and majored in horse management at that college.
    
24. Where did you go in your first limo ride? Hmmmm, I don't think I've ever been in a limo.
    

Did You Hear It?

That was me letting loose with a very big squeee!  I just read these words in my email: "Laptop is back to life."  I can pick it up tomorrow. 

Wednesday WIPing 7/23/08

The latest on the laptop: "Seems like a virus to me, but I can't even install a virus check program to find out."   Before digging any deeper, he's going to attempt to back up the important stuff because of the very real possibility whatever happened is fatal.  I won't lose my email contacts because my email goes to both the laptop and the desktop.  The pertinence of this to Wednesday WIPing?  Desktop requires an external photo card reader, which I have in the larger sense, but which currently inexplicably frustratingly sits in my daughter's desk at work.   So I can't show any pictures of what I've been up to since last week.  Which, it turns out, is a good thing.  Heh.  I've done not a single knit stitch.  No spinning.  About the only fiberly progress I accomplished, other than the nuno felt wrap, is to start skeining up yarn to play in the dye pots.

Baby bunny progress is also heartbreakingly nil.  He had his third adjustment last night, and at the end of attempting to free up the clearly compromised spot, we decided to x-ray.  The bunny's feet work, so the spinal cord is intact.  I don't have the x-ray results yet.  At this point, my big concern is whether the little tyke is in pain.  None of us really know.  Bunnies, like most prey animals, need to hide any sign of weakness to avoid selection as the target.  My sense is the baby is not in pain, except for the adjustments.  I have my own chiro appt later today, so should get some info then.  Depending on results, it will probably be decision time.  One incredibly sweet caring woman has already said, as long as he's not in pain, she'll meet me half way to pick him up so he can be a well loved, well cared for pet even if he doesn't have use of his hind end.  Half way from me here in New England is roughly Louisville!  Is she not incredible??? 

Oh, HELL(P)

Update  on Laptop: it's ugly.  The network engineer who used to live here walked me through all sorts of diagnostic attempts and ultimately declared the machine fucked up.  He wonders why it even runs at all. System restore - won't.  User accounts - none.  Hardware accessories - gone.  All in the blink of an eye.  No idea what happened.  I can access photos and documents (rabbit records, for gawd's sake!!!) but whether I can burn a cd to preserve them, doubtful.  I haven't had the heart to try yet.  At least I have the pedigrees in paper form, and many of them also stored here on the desktop, so I can rebuild those files easily enough.  He's going to thunk on things a bit and consult with some of the other gurus at work to see if anyone else has thoughts on what next, other than ship it back to Dell.  I still have to contact my older son for virus protection info because he's the one who installed that, and it's not the same the network engineer uses and I can't tell him what I do have.  I've spent some time around the garden, ripping out weeds from the edges.  That was very satisfying. 

I have a love affair going on, with my laptop.  It's that adorable portability feature.  Puppies need supervising?  I bring the laptop and let the pups romp around me.  Working on felt or dyeing?  Laptop on the next table.  If I feel like going out for a cuppa tea and everyone else is at work, just grab the laptop and I've got y'all with me. 

Laptop ditched the internet last night.  Total eviction.  And not a clue why.

I paid the ISP bill, so it's not that.  Internet still available on the desktop, so it's not the network.  All my non-internet stuff works just fine, so Laptop is functional.  Just internetless.  Not sure what happened.  One minute I was checking stuff, then oops, gone.  I shut it down, waited a few, turned it back on and no toolbar at the bottom, and the icons all rearranged.  When I finally coaxed the toolbar back, everything was different, and there is no network icon anywhere.  Tried to connect from the start button but no. That's the extent of my abilities to figure it out.  Sigh. 

That's A Wrap

This is the felting I did yesterday. It's a nuno felt wrap.  I started with a base of 5 mm habotai silk, then laid out a very thin layer of wool from the batt.  After that, it's pretty basic wet felting.  It felt good.  

And just because I love the tree modeling the wrap, here's a photo for you.  That was the first planting I did when we bought this house.  Not being big into hard physical labor like digging a big enough hole in rocky New England soil, I dug enough to seat the root ball, then got a load of top soil delivered and turned the area into a mounded garden.  When I do eventually move (someday!!), I will miss this tree.  She was just a bitty thing when I got her, and there she is, all grown up.