DEATH, TAXES & THE MOON?

Dear IRS,

They say you can't get blood from a stone. You can, however, get my tax payment from one really big stone.

I saw a report on 60 Minutes this week about NASA spending $ .15 per person per day on the space program. I assume this is my tax money being used. I do not support the space program. I, like most people, barely have a handle on this planet. Therefore, I believe that NASA owes me $54.75 this year. I have been working & paying taxes now for 19 years. That is now a total of $1,040.25.

I'm not sure who at NASA you should speak to, but I would like to use this towards my tax payment for this year (2007). Please send the outstanding bill to Mr. George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC. I'm sure his company has misused other moneys that I paid to you for, what I was assuming, important things here on Earth.

Thank you,

Jennifer Wood

Thank You Ralph

Ralph Moberly

1945 - 2008

Local Legend & Entrepreneur

You will be greatly missed.

Thanks for the memories.

The Best of Me

About a month ago I started the Top Seed Shawl from Cast On (issue May-July 2007). I did my gauge swatches, found the right needles & was off and running. I was very pleased with the yarn I

 chose. Reynolds Saucy Sport. A lovely sage green. I was so lucky to have purchased 10 skeins from someone in my weekly knitting group (thanks Erin).

Right from the start I knew I was short 1 or 2 skeins. The corner cutter that I am, I thought I could slip 1 or 2 skeins of another dye lot

 in without anyone noticing. WRRRONG! I got about 10" done before I noticed. Honestly, I didn't even notice. The lighting in my house is so terrible I couldn't see that my beautiful Tiny Bowknot stitch was 2 very different colors. It was embarrassingly pointed out to me. Devastated, I took it home & threw it in the corner. It took me 2 weeks to confront it. I finally frogged it, rewound the yarn and started it all over. I had a plan (really it was Steve's plan). I would knit the body with the 10 skeins of "good yarn", as I began calling it, and do the sleeves with the 2 skeins of "bad yarn".

10" along, again, I discovered that I still won't have enough yarn to do the body! I also had decided this would be a Mother's Day gift. With a little over a month to go, I would need to knit about 2.5 - 3" every day to finish.

Back to not having enough yarn. I am getting gauge, but it is 4" wider than it is suppose to be. Why? I have no friggin idea. I am, however, getting 5" of length out of each skein. It doesn't take a genius to figure out if I cut 4" of width off I will have enough yarn for the body.

I just keep knitting. I am in denial. This is exactly what I do with everything. Just keep going & pretend it's not there. It's April 7 & I haven't even looked at my taxes. Say no more.

I love knitting, but there is something that I am missing. The ability to stop when things aren't going right & do it over & over & over if it's necessary. I think, "It's not perfect, so what." Why put all that work into it if it's not wearable?

I started the sleeves & put the body away for a bit. Let's be honest, there is more frogging in my future. Good news, I get to cut 18 stitches off of pattern when I start over.

IN SICKNESS...

On Friday February 15 at 10am, my love & bipedially challenged, Steve hit the deck. He fell in our yard on a spot of ice breaking his left ankle. We spent a romantic afternoon in the ER at UMASS with our wonderful Murse, Eduardo.

Steve spent the next week at home waiting to see an Orthopedic surgeon (thanks to Aunt Lyn, it only took a week). Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday February 26, 7:30am. After 6 1/2 hours of surgery, he had a plate & 7 screws installed to the fibula and 2 screws to the tibia malleoli.We spent the next 3 DAYS hanging out at the hospital! Thank you to Murse, Peter for a great job.


Spent another 4 days at home, before returning


to work Tuesday March 4.
Steve had his stitches out this week & got an air cast. He is still on crutches, but can do a little more for himself.

Steve has been a wonderful patient. No complaints, no demands, no whining. He has been made aware our differences in this area & is still willing to marry me. I should probably take him up on it before I get seriously injured. You don't often get to try out the marriage vows before the wedding.

ROLLER BOOGIE

Last night my sister's friends threw her a 30th birthday party at Skylite Roller Rink. It was a blast. I haven't been on skates in about 22 years. Her friends, boyfriend & some of our family attended. Both of our aunts & uncles skated! I couldn't believe the number of us that took the chance.


Of course, Betsy was dressed for the occassion. She bought that silver jacket just for the evening & her boyfriend gave her new skates for her birthday. When are those gonna come in handy again? The best I could do was my off the shoulder Flashdance sweatshirt & rented skates(the latter I wouldn't have been caught dead in 22 years ago)

From the 4th grade to about 7th, my best friend KellyD & I went to the roller rink reliously. When I say reliously I mean we spent every Sunday all day instead of church. We had our own skates(white w/ red or blue wheels were acceptable), lycra skating skirts worn with nylons(makes your pasty pre-pubescent legs look tan. hot, huh?)& skate covers(who wants to see your laces, yuck!) My skating skirt was the most incredible shade of aqua blue that would make Toni Basil spontaneously break into a cheerleader pyramid. I looked like a string bean in a mini skirt. Last time I skated I didn't have any boobs. Now, not only am I worried about that, I have an ass to haul around too. Center of gravity has changed. Good times!

FINALLY, A SWEATER FOR ME!

I started this cardigan during the frustration period of the project below. It's coming along wonderfully. There is a problem in the armhole decrease math. I am winging it. I have contacted 2 people doing this project. Neither seems to have been bothered by the mistake. So I motor on,

 optimistic. The back is done, as you can see. The stitch pattern is so easy, but looks complicated to non-knitters. I felt like the back came out a bit small for my size, so I bumped up the size of the front panels(which I am doing at the same time on one needle) by 2 stitches. Gotta make sure they cover "the girls".

Another Sweater, Another Set of Problems

I started a sweater for my sweetie.
I found a pattern that seemed simple with a great texture. It can be worked from the top down, which needs to be done because he needs to be able to try it on as it goes along. We took the time to pick out the right yarn & color.
I'm about 5% in. There's already a problem. I think it's the pattern (it's always the pattern). I spent an 1 1/2 hours at the Sheep Shack getting help(thank you Liz). When I left, things were motoring along. I picked it up again the next night, DISASTER!
If anyone can help... I seem to lose the stitch pattern somewhere when I transition from back to top of right front.