Zippiknits.......Sometimes

Sky Watcher

2009-11-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

Our Vet just called with the best news. The lump that Wolfie had on his hip was granulomatous panniculitis, and is not cancer. I will never again count the cost of a test because it was a like a huge weight lifted off my heart when she told me the good news. Our little dog can continue to grow healthier and happier now.

On with knitting and with life!

Next project A little wire hanger Christmas tree.

2009-11-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

All you do with this six hanger apparatus is wrap it with some fuzzy garland, then stick on whatever else pleases you on the outside of that. You can see that it is tie-wrapped at the top( which I will take off during the wrapping and do with wire, and at the center. It makes a sweet looking lighted tree for a kitchen counter. Have you started your Christmas crafting yet? It's closer than you think!

There's a bigger tree you can make with an upturned Tomato cage, using the same sort of techniques. It's taller and slimmer. The ends that you usually stick into the ground are wired together and a tree topper hides them from view. There you are, two trees that you can make in a jiffy with sale stuff from Michaels. Enjoy!

Book excitement!

2009-11-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

The Margolis books have arrived and have taken their places in the very small library of tailoring and pattern making books. Too bad I'm in the "sweatpants and t shirts time of life".

But, now I can make patterns and/or sew for my DDs who still would like some style in their lives. I've been out off-roading far too long now to care much. heehee. I'm so glad to have Adele Margolis' books because I fear they will disappear from the County LS. I'm taking no chances.

Ralph Nader on what the new Health care bill (bull?) out of the House means for us....

2009-11-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

I'm not overly excited about the so called Health care reform bill that just passed the House, but I hadn't seen this part until going to CounterPunch and reading it.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography's newest dolphin TOY

2009-11-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

Scripps Scientists may get more than they bargained for when the dolphins find out about THIS .

What were they thinking? Don't they know that dolphins all talk to each other across big spaces and can zero in on these almost instantly? And what about the Gray Whales, they may get down on these things, too.

I'm going to go knit a bit now, since I can hardly contain my own curiosity about what these things are. I want one of my own!

She's falling for that penny we think!

2009-11-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

We hope that she hasn't bonded with it.

Baby Tort Weigh-in and new feed

2009-11-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

Little feller on the scale weighing in at 24.77 grams

After the weigh in came the introduction to the new food ( that glop that smells like alfalfa, but looks ever so much like semi dry horse poodooo) is introduced. It's dried grasses for grassland tortoises. I wet it so that she could be enticed to eat it.

So much of a tortoise's diet is dried grasses, I think around 90 %, that this stuff looks good for the baby. Yesterday she actually ate a whole dandilion flower, so that probably took care of appetite for a week. HAR!

Climate Bill YouTube.

2009-11-09T18:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, here's another LINK, but the EPA was asking that this is taken down, so it might still disappear.

Here is another LINK to the Op Ed at the Washington Post.

And another LInk to an open letter on this that was written May 4th 2008, on the Carbon Fee's web site.

PS: I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about this. I wonder who's going to benefit - and that is all short term benefit - if this thing doesn't work. I think I'll start wearing plaids and stripes together in protest or something... Thank you Albert, thank you very much.

Big baby surprise....New baby tortoise

2009-11-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is the newest tot, and it has brown eyes like the rest.
I always hope for a green eyed one but Lucky's been the only green eyed one.
The color is very pale, like in this picture, not the one that follows.

A size picture for Baby L.

That's a penny under new baby's foot and the big coins are quarters.

DH went out to water the garden, and came back in with a look of surprise on his face, and his hand behind his back. This little fellow is what he found. He said that when he first saw it, he thought it was dead it was so pale. Then it jumped when he touched it.

We are trying to locate any others, but since we were gone for the first week of September, this may be a lone survivor of our 2009 clutch, a clutch we didn't even know was buried by Poco Ono.

Oh my, I hope we don't find too many! But I do hope we find all that are left. Next year we must be VERY diligent about digging up the nest. First you have to find it though. I can see that the mother is getting very tricky about her nests.

I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs - Times Online

2009-11-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs - Times Online

I'm sorry, this is just too good not to share. It's a long read but worth every minute. If this is God's work, someone needs a bolt of lightning lesson from Heaven if you ask me.

And to think that other Corporations in this mire of greed, not this same entity but many who share the values, don't want us to use some of our own money to provide health insurance to the nation's uninsured families.

Well, go (Insert whatever comes to mind here) yourselves, because we are going to keep fighting for what we think is more like God's Work than yours is, Mr. Lloyd Blankfein, thank you very much.

Thank you, L, for showing me the way to Goldman Sachs' little "rabbit hole".

Happy Endings...

2009-11-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

Wolfie had to wait a day for us ( to consult our vet and make up our minds) after we saw him. There is a little cartoon in between this one and the first one that sort of shows "Riley" having to wait, too. But I didn't want to push my luck too much here. I adore this comic strip. It always cheers me up. Anyway, Wolfie also has a little round bed now and lots of love. Jazzie would approve, I'm sure, of his little car bed being used again. The other ones we did give to the shelter but we kept that little round bed.

After watching the series of six YouTube videos about dog breeding in the UK, and reviewing all the illnesses that befall the inbred dogs, I can see that Jazzie suffered at least three diseases, and probably four, that are a result of such inbreeding. He was a happy little dog, right to the end, but he did suffer from his genetic illnesses. I'm forever thankful that the backyard breeder did not get her hands on him, and he was able to have pretty happy and long life full of exciting things to do, and lots and lots of love.

I'm knitting the Aran sweater, but have had a bad headache for two days. I hope it isn't the Alpaca yarn because there is no way I'm not finishing this sweater for DH!

Where have you been?

2009-11-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Patrick McDonnell has always been an advocate for animals and especially shelter Animals. Today's comic strip is dear to our hearts, as we have been looking at Wolfie and trying to build some sort of back story, based on his history at the shelter, of treatment, and of the injuries that we know he's suffered from being "out there in that feral world, in his bones. I'm so glad that he gets to "turn the page" with us, now. He's really coming along, from being the "timid little dog" in the shelter records, to full on confidence in his home and yard. He's ultra cautious when he's being walked, going into instant alert when he spots another dog. DH says Wolfie will turn around from time to time to track the dog.

Knitting is going along nicely. I've figured out where I stopped knitting on the Drops Aran, and am starting the second repeat of the main pattern. Two repeats will probably take me up nearly to the arms.

I've also been busily buying up copies of Adele Margolis' books so that I can have her expert references before the big buy up hits. She died very recently at 100 years of age.

She was a giant mover and shaker in home sewing, bringing high fashion Couturier techniques into the home seamstresses' reach. I hope that there is a new generation of women of this stature to carry on the legacy.

When we were young...

2009-11-04T10:32:00.001-08:00

This is when the twins were tiny babies and we were doing double shifts, DH at work and home AND Uni, and me at home, feedings every two hours. B is in the background which is just a little dark. See those dark circles around DH's and my eyes?

DH is at work on a very old computer, I think. He's not here at the moment, and I can't ask him. It might be a teletype.. who knows but that was a long, long time ago. The stamp isn't from then, I think. Just a very cute love stamp. I was 29 and he had just turned 31. We were both going on a 110 years old at that time of our lives. We were pretty tired.

Grandmother and André

2009-11-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

Memories of Childhood

This is my mother's mother holding my little brother André, who died of grand mal seizures when he was five years old. My mother went into a depression after he passed away, and my Psycho Dad destroyed most of the pictures of André in a fit of bad temper. The paternal unit could never admit to producing such a "defective child" and didn't like any reminders. This is what my mother told me about it later. Mother was calm and not someone who resorted to hyperbole.

Mother was able to salvage this picture, one of two that exist of my brother.

There's nothing quite like living with a completely out of control male adult to make you hyper aware of your surroundings at all time. Celéste was one year old at the time that that André passed away.

My grandmother died in the same year as my little brother. So now I'm understanding much more about my own early life knowing what was going on with the adults around me at the time.

To youngsters and young adults out there going through hell, I'd like you to know that you can grow up and have a happy life if you can manage to forgive, and get the maniacs out of your life in time if they still haven't managed to become decent human beings. Leave but tell them why. Even if you think they don't deserve a word. That's my advice, because it leaves no questions in your OWN mind that you did all you could. You can forget, once you forgive, and let their influence fade out of your life. You can become a truly happy person.

I knew it! I knew it! I just bloody well knew it!

2009-11-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

The economists got the global economy model WRONG!

Read about it HERE!

This train wreck had a genesis and it was within certain unnamed Schools of Economics that this beast was born. It had to be somewhere.. Remember the theories developed by John Forbes Nash? His theories were also used in the formulation of Economic Models for the Global Economy, and even he said of them that they "sometimes worked".

You'll remember his story in the book, A Beautiful Mind, and the subsequent movie of the same name. ( edited for omissions).

Enjoy some freedom in your thinking, as all that hogwash (otherwise known as crap) crashes around their ears....

Little Happy Buddha Comes Home

2009-11-02T10:30:00.000-08:00

This little guy took a long time to make it home, but he's perfect. He's about five inches tall, and was fired last week. Later I'll show the very small Christmas tree, which just needs it's lights and the cord installed. I'm still debating about making a large tree. Someone else can pour it for me and that makes the big one possible. I really like the little one because it fits in small spaces. Who knows, maybe I'll give the baby tortoises a Christmas tree, one that they will undoubtedly try to climb.

Soon we are taking Wolfie for his first official car ride. He still doesn't have his very own toys, and he needs a bone to chew in his crate. Last night I gave him one of the really expensive treat like drumsticks-it is made like a bird's leg- and since he'd turned down several times I expected him to do so again. I have to admit that it was pretty "high" smelling.

But, to my alarm, he started to devour it! He put it between his front paws and started chewing on the drumstick end, biting off big chunks! And so, I reached in to take it away and he gave me this HUGE growl and even a little snapping of teeth ensued. I laughed and laughed because that was a trait I'd forgotten since petite old Jazzie let me take anything away from him, i.e. something he wasn't supposed to have. I'm happy not to have bitten, but I guess that's the terrier vs the toy poodle.

So, he will get a regular gnawing bone, and the other ones will be "aired" and then taken along to the bay as a treat for him when we eat our fish and chips. He's not dog aggressive and likes people, thoroughly social little dog. I'm looking forward to taking him to dog beach and dog park. What fun! We have a friend who takes his wife's and his little Shi Tzu rescue doggie to both places. We can all go visit them at home, too.

And we not only have another "lap" dog, we have one that has finally calculated the height of our rather tall bed, and came flying up over the end of it this morning to wake me ALL the way awake. He's much too small to get down safely, so we have to rig up some sort of steps. Maybe the yarn baskets will have to find a new home. I can't imagine where to put those two big hampers. But he can't spend all his time in the crate- his very own gated community. He's going into it right away now after less than a week with us. When we say, "OK it's time for bed". This dog is so darn smart it's scary. Poodles are smarter but not by much, I reckon.

Well, that's enough about the new dog.

Knitting again and out comes the Manly sweater and the the SF Hempathy gloves, little Owlets from Mochi Mochi Land which is HERE. I love this Knitter's little animals! I am doing Ravelympics this year, and some sort of WIP wrangling, too.

Go Phillies!

Charter For Compassion Video

2009-11-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

Charter For Compassion starts November 12th.

To find out more, please look here on YouTube:

Charter For Compassion Video

Remember bending swords into Plowshares? We can have that, or we can have Armageddon. What do you, yourself, want the future for your children and their children to be like?

I, personally, have had enough of this "Forcing of Armageddon". I'm sick to death of it.

LIttle Rainbows of Life

2009-11-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

I came around the corner of the dining room and DH was brushing Wolfie outside on the big paver. The sprinkler behind him made a happy little rainbow in the sun. I just had to record the event.

Wolfie Barked!

2009-10-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

He's got a loud bark, too! He might be nearsighted though! He barked at DH when DH stopped at the mailbox. lol.. We are so happy now that means whatever was wrong is now over.

I was going to tell you this (below) in another post:

We reckon that he had a heck of a time for those first five years. But someone loved him in the past, somewhere.

He can't bark because of some sort of injury. He just has a tiny growl and a tiny whine which he uses in a friendly way, to communicate his wants. He tries to bark at times but it's like a hoarse semi cough.

DH is now calling him our little Miracle Dog because he has lifted our sadness and gloom, and for the fact that Wolfie survived all that he has and did it with a sweet and calm demeanor.

Wolfie is pretty well bonded now, and goes to the front door when he wants to go out and water the trees. We think he's enjoying this new life.

Well, the Bark is Back. Fabulous!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

Trick or Treat!

Next up, is a little winter coat.

2009-10-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

What colors do you think I should knit it in, and any suggestions of patterns? He is a short legged and very compact 13 pounder.

Soctoberfest socks are finished!

2009-10-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hooray, they are done. And my new sandals, close outs from Land's End that FIT... arrived this afternoon. Yay for shoes that fit! and socks!

That bit of fur in the picture is little Wolfie. He's not our dearest Jazzie, and we know that, but he is such a true match to us that we cannot believe how lucky we were to find him, fall in love with him, and save him.

Something quietly Beautiful is going on in Bangor Maine....

2009-10-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

Unpopular wars are not a soldier's fault. Nor are the illegal ones. Soldiers are brave to begin with, and they go because they believe in their duty to their country.

I'm sharing this short video because of the love it expresses. Love is more important to healing than anything. It is the base of all living systems' ability to heal the heart, mind and body.

Wolfie in his new life....

2009-10-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

This little guy was a victim of extreme neglect. But, his hair will grow back in and he will be gorgeous, and he will probably not lose any more teeth. He's already beautiful on the inside. He is a rescue and he's wonderful. He is one of the happiest little dogs I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

He saw his vet today, and he's on the road to being fully mended. We have a wonderful vet and her staff is just terrific, also. Wolfie is in very good hands.

He's probably under five years old, and was a stray. I don't think he's ever seen a vet in his short little life. He is a Yorkiepoo.

Big Big World issue. Clean, Safe Water... Ted Talk by Michael Pritchard

2009-10-28T17:43:00.000-07:00

He invented a water bottle that will clean really filthy water. This is a wonderful item and maybe as adults who care about children, who are most vulnerable to filthy water, we can get behind this, and blog it all over the place.