I'm still Here...and so is everyone else.

Yesterday I turned 50yrs old.

There was no zombie apocalypse.

California didn't break off and sink into the Pacific Ocean.

The Earth didn't spiral into the Sun.

In other words, it wasn't the end of the world.

It was just another day and here I am the day after saying it wasn't so bad.

It is especially good if you face it head on with no grey hairs on that head and lots of love and happy wishes from those in your life who haven't hit that milestone yet.  From those that have, you get welcomed to "The 5-0 Club".

Never knew it existed.  I always thought it was just AARP.

Oh, and I will be filling out that AARP membership.  I'll get a snazzy free travel bag and access to a supposed boat load of discounts.

And getting older is all about the free and the discounts.  Even more so than it was before 50.  :)

Happy Birthday Spencer, Part 2

Almost forgot...

Here's your "birthday shirt and a pair of socks".  They should be done by the time you are 30.  Love you!

Happy Birthday to Our Spencer

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Spencer,

Happy 19th Birthday Son!

This is the first time that neither your Dad nor I have been with you on your birthday.  It is inevitable that this happens, you are becoming your own Man.

But, as I keep telling myself, I was there for the one that started them all - the day you were born.  I celebrate this date for me too you know.  It may be your Birthday, but it's also my MomDay.

You complained that you had to work today.  All I can do is smile and say "welcome to the real world".  The only time I have not had to work on my birthday is when it fell on a weekend.

I hope you enjoy yourself today both during work and after work and I hope the weather in LA is a lot better than it is here.  At least it's not 110F like it was the day you were born in Texas.

Have a great day Spencer!

Love,

Mom


PS When are you going to send me your Mother's Day photos?  I need some recent pix. Thx.

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Today is my son's 18th birthday.

I am extrememly happy for him.

I am sad for me.

I am proud of the man he has become.

Happy Birthday Spencer!  May you have many more and may all your dreams and wishes come true! 

Love you LOTS, Mom.

Sigh

Today would have been Mom's 81st Birthday.

I took a photo of an old photo of Mom that I wanted to post.  On my phone it looks fine.  In reality it is blurry.

I wanted to write a nice post and put that old photo in it - it is one of my favorite ones of her.

Suddenly I have no words and now I have no photo.

I miss you Mom.

Edited to add:  Jeez, I could have at least said Happy Birthday.  "Happy Birthday Mom".

It's almost the end of the month...

...the birthday month...and the shopping...oh my goodness the shopping...

I spent my Amazon gift card in a New York minute (thanks G!) and ordered a book I have had on my wish list for about 4 years (!!!!), and another that I found and thought I'd like (Ms Cow requested it actually).

A small shopping spree at The Yarn Boutique in Lafayette, CA happened the weekend after my birthday. The owner was there the day I went and she was very very helpful. The store is very small and PACKED to the ceiling, so don't bring kids or carts or strollers or wheelchairs if you go. I could barely walk round in there and kept knocking stuff over. I got 3 different kinds of sock yarn and another set of square circulars. We also had a good chat about the yarn I won at the SF Ravelry Meet-up in May. She gave me a few suggestions about patterns I should look up - all free. :) She's made them before and really liked the results and said my yarns should work well.

I couldn't stay there long tho as my wool allergies started up...high concentration of wool fumes in the wee tiny shop. :)

Lunch came after, then a trip to the hair colorist. Ask for Jesse, he rocks - maybe that cos he's the head instructor for coloring... :) If you're curious, the number is 925-937-2011. Tell him Donna the knitter sent you. They are very accomodating as far as appointments go and the prices are very reasonable - Ms Troi says they can do that because the Academy tuition pays the rent, the rest is just a service to the local 'hood.

And if that wasn't enuf...I hit Target and Ross before I FINALLY headed home.

There has been a wee bit of internet shopping since then...very small amount of beads, some more yarn and needles (not b-day stuff tho as it's for gift projects) and a few books from the my book swap club. One for me and one for Spence for a school reading project. I just LOVE the swap club!

It really was like Christmas in July around the Chaos this year. Not only was it very COLD out, I just kept getting delivery after delivery. :)

Spencer and I will decide some day what we will do to celebrate our b-days again. On our actual days, it was so freakin' hot that we didn't do much of anything. So I promised him, we'd wait til summer was over and do something special together.

Happy Birthday to me!

OK, so I thought I had figured out something to count for my birthday.

I thought it would be clever to count down the minutes to my actual time of birth so long ago...

But then that would entail 47 monotonous posts.

There are tons of minutes in the day, but I don't feel like wasting any of them doing post after post after post.

Then I thought, I'll just put them all in one but that would be totally b.0.r.i.n.g. and how the heck would I organize it?

So I'm writing this all to tell you I was born at 8:39am 47 years ago...and I'm setting this to auto post so that I can get it all precise-like and now I can go relax for the night.

I'm going to go knit for 47 minutes. The first Dr Who sock is complete and I've already cast on and finished the toe of it's quasi-twin.

Yawn

I'm tired and should really be getting ready for bed. Instead, I'm about to pay bills. Argle.

I'm calling my hair dude tomorrow to schedule time for next Saturday. Grey must go!

I played way too much xbox today and I don't care. Unfortunately, my wrist does. D'oh!

My kitchen is a wreck. I'll deal with it tomorrow.

Spain won the World Cup. Tha tha tha-tha-tha (look up Katherine Tate and The Interpreter - hilarious)

Evil Thorn Season has started. My Beastly Tires are ready. Bring it.

Lance, dude, you shoulda just stayed retired - gone out while you were ahead. Now you're just another biker back in the pack.

I'm trying to think of what to use to count off my age on Thursday. Don't know if I have that much of anything. Sigh.

Maybe I'll just ignore my birthday. Kinda leaning in that direction already anyway.

I just had to check the calendar to make sure my b-day really was on Thursday.

Maybe I'll just count the brain cells I have left. Maybe I'll just go to bed and save the bills for tomorrow.

Sigh.

Hi!!!!!

Hello out there!

I'm still here.

I'm knitting.

I'm working.

I'm aging.

It's my b-day month. Tell me I look 30 and I'll be your BFF.

Mom's socks are done and blocked. Need to weave in the ends and send it off with a few other things.

Looking forward to a quiet Holiday weekend. Is there such a thing?

Birthday Boy...

...no longer. Spencer is now a "young man".

My young man is now 16 - as of 6:49am this morning - I swear, I woke up in the middle of the night with labor pains to mark this momentous occassion.

Seems like just yesterday that I took my first look at the wriggling baby who wrapped his long, tiny fingers round my one big finger in the delivery room.

Now he's pushing 5'10", is about 160lbs and wearing size 11 shoes.

No photos today cos I'm a totally lame mother. We went out to breakfast this morning before I headed off to work and he went off to spent the day with his best buddies. I took a photo of our burritos, but not my newly driving 16 yr old son.

Sigh.

Happy Birthday to MEeeeeee - Now with edited updates!!!

Yes, today is my b-day. If you are keeping track, I'm 46 today. On the other side of "mid-40's" getting close to 50. Sigh.

Yeah, I have mixed feelings about today. Add to that the fact that the high temp will most likely be 100F and well, whatever. Birthday ennui.

ETA: Not sure if it got that hot, but for a while there this afternoon, it was pretty damn close while we walked about. Gah.

There are plans for the day...once they are started, I should feel better about things.

An online chat with Honey.

ETA: I misses you lots.

Lunch with Spencer at our favorite deli. Then on the bus and off to the movies for the matinee showing of the new Harry Potter movie. YAY!!!!

Either before or after the movie, it's a quick trip to the bead store to get some stuff for Friday's class. I don't think that the stuff I ordered online is going to make it in time. It took forever for my payment to clear the bank, so shipment was delayed. Stupid banking system! I only need a few curved tube beads and 30 inches of flexible wire. sigh.

ETA: My stuff showed up today! What a wonderful b-day surprise. The postman was delivering to the boxes as we were leaving and we just about tackled him looking for stuff (we're waiting for a few other things as well). Got my jewelry bits order and a few b-day cards!

There are cards...here's the one Honey sent me...hee hee hee

ETA: Selected by Cow - who thought I should get a cow card, but all he could find was sheep.



And gifts....when we renewed our cell phone family plan, we upgraded and Mom was kind enough to pony up the extra cash to get me this cool whiz bang phone. I've had it since May-ish and I absolutely love it! Thanks Mom!!!!

Others have been teasing me with "you have to wait til dinner to get your presents" (you evil person, you know who you are) and Spencer is on his way soon and says he has a card and gift for me. Going to open that one right away!

ETA: Evil person finally gave up the goods - some makeup goodies, a gift card, and a cute little polka dot bag which is already packed full of jewelry class supplies - you all know how I love my bags!!! Spencer gave me a gift certificate to the local art supply store! My friends and family know me way too well! I LOVE EVERYTHING!!!! THANKS A BUNCH!!!!

Drawing class was fun again...my classmates seem to have calmed down a bit and are now telling each other to shut up. I managed to snag a seat right up front so I could see and hear everything! Found out why after about 5 min into the class. Seems the a/c blows right on that spot and the one next to me - which happened to remain empty for the entire class. Several people sat there and as soon as the a/c came on again they went running for the hills complaining about bad nerves, this, that or the other malady that would act up if the a/c blew on them for 3 hours. Ahhh...peace and quiet!!! Guess that's my territory now! I especially enjoy the a/c blowing on me after a hot ride to class. heh heh heh

Yesterday, we did faces and then concentrated on eyes. That was really cool. Someday I promise to scan in my stuff as I've discovered I really CAN draw. I get that from my Dad. My drawings are not perfect, but that's ok, you can tell what they are supposed to be and my faces actually have features and don't just look like smiley faces. hee hee hee With practice I'll get better and better. I am SO GLAD I took this class!!!!

Celebrating in the Chaos Today!

Happy B-day Oh Favored Son!

Spencer is 15 today. Goodness gracious where have the years gone?

One day he's Mommy's sweet widdle bundle of wuv...





The next day he's big and tall...and whining about having his picture taken...




and bossing around other kids! He's a Junior Counselor (JC) at a local Science Camp for a few weeks this summer.




Happy B-day Spencer! I love you and wish all the best for you. I'd better stop before I get all mushy and teary eyed and start blabbering...sigh...

I know, I've been absent...

I have enjoyed being semi-unplugged since I officially stopped working on May 15th.

Have been very busy as well.

There was finishing the Dress.




Really wish I had a dress form....this hanger does NOT do this dress justice...at all!

There was mad, crazy, almost all night gaming at KublaCon...

There was bike fixing, switching out of various and sundry bike bits and pieces.

There has been bike riding almost EVERY day! I've dropped 5 pounds so far... YAY!

And there was not much knitting or other crafting...except for Mom's birthday earrings.





I've been in a sort of a 'crafter's block' situation. My head is bursting with crafty ideas for knitting, sewing, crocheting, embroidery, combinations of all of the above...lots of prototypes for stuff to put out on my shop need to be made...the crafty list is endless.

Yet...I could do nothing.

Enter the craft palette cleanser...








Remember the "birthday balls" from last summer?

Well those 45, plus about 5-10 more, along with random balls found here and there round the Chaos, make up this BIG, HUGE, bad boy of a blankie (big enough to cover a twin size bed and then some - in the photos, it's on my double bed). Enter Size S extended Tunisian Crochet Hook, 3 strands held together, and Voila! Check out Stitch Diva for an easy Tunisian Tutorial - I also bought my S hook from them at Stitches West back in February. They also have a pattern for a stash buster blanket, but I just did my own thing.

The dominant colors in my acrylic stash were black and various shades of dark blue. I held one strand of black, one strand of blue and then just grabbed for colors. The balls were stacked nicely in the container according to color, so I attached one color, used it til it ran out, then started on the next and so on and so on. The photos don't do it justice as it's rather cool looking and flows pretty well from one section to another. Using the black and blue as the "glue" was a very good idea. Eventually I ran out of black and blue and then started in with the other base colors of green and dark red...and then found some more black, so added it back in... It was a fun project!

I started this sucker on the evening of June 1st...worked on it every night that week for about an hour or two, one or two hours over the busy weekend, left it alone until last night...DONE!

Insta-warm blankie, and the acrylic stash is G-O-N-E. At least I think it is....I'm sure more of that stuff will pop up...I swear, it breeeeds.

It's BIG, it's HEAVY, and it's Spencer's. He likes lots of weight and warmth on him in the winter while he sleeps. This should do it.

Craft palette cleansed.

Had an interesting last few days, but will save that for another post. I'll try not to stay away from the computer so much. :)

Yarn Cake Birthday Cake!

Welll....sort of...

This being my birthday and all, I decided to do something a bit...ummm...different. :)

I've got another special, not so secret, but most of all "different" project in the works (coming to needles near you this fall) and I've decided to use the yarn I'm going to be using for the project to ummm...show how old I am...or that I have way too much yarn...or that I've lost my marbles.... The jury is still out on which one...

So...with the help of the Big Bag O' Fake Yarn (cakes) Balls (acrylic)....




...and without further ado...drum roll please...prrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmm......

10...prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm



20...prrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmm



30...prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmm



OH GAH THERE'S MORE!!!

40...prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmm




OK...OK...exactly how many fake balls have you got Donna?!?

45...ba dum bum cha!



That's IT!!!!

Well, that's it for the birthday years...but...we still have more balls...mostly wee little fake balls - but they qualify as balls none the less.



...BUT WAIT..there's more...




This little bag o' balls only contains 3 colours. And I'm only typing colours instead of colors cos I'm going to make something British...and they don't spell colors right and I wanna make sure Honey can read this... (love you Honey - it's my birthday, I can be a snarky little snot if I want to - oREGano!)

My Chicago Bears Bear needs a new sweater and hat set. Time to get his footy (that's soccer for us US folks) on with a little Leeds United spirit.



And there you have it my friends. 45 balls old.

Now if you'll excuse me, that was exhausting. Time for this old lady to take a nap. :)

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!! *

14 years ago today, I went thru 20+ hours of labor (no drugs) in the heat (the A/C in the hospital broke, we were in TX and it was 110F outside), only to end up having a C-Section (still no A/C) at the ungodly hour of 5am to deliver my bouncing baby boy. And I walked uphill barefoot the whole way. hahaha

Just kidding about the uphill and barefoot part, but the rest is true.

I think he was worth it**.


Here he is at home the first few days:


In a stroller at the Zoo:


Hamming it up for Mommy's camera at the park:


And most recently at Graduation last week (the only reason we are the same height is that I was wearing high wedge sandals***):


Happy Birthday Spencer, may you live a long, healthy, creative life. And you will if you stop reminding me how short I am!

Love you baby!

*He'll totally KILL me when he reads that....heh heh heh...

**I'll let you know if I still feel the same way in a few years...

***Just thought I'd clarify that Spencer, because I am painfully aware that you are taller than I am...sigh.