Annie Knits

Apparently, I Have Postitis...

The black hole of internet attention today has been this website.  Do NOT click unless you have lots of time and you've been doing your Kegel exercises.  You've been warned.  The Captain America video is particularly disturbing/amusing. 

And Monte got his summer cut today.  He looks like a Dr. Seuss character. 

Edited:  Ok, Ok, you know I don't think that stalking is funny.  It's scary and abhorent.  To clarify, what I think is funny is the above website's response to crazy men's notes.  It's kind of an in-your-face you crazy SOB's/ shake your fist at the universe thing.  The post about the response to Ben's Captain America video includes a link to a 47 or so page wank about the vid, including a parody vid or two that are very, very funny.   

It's Stinkhorn Season

Last year my neighbor pointed out that we have them.  Stinkhorn fungus.  They come out after a good rain in the spring time. 

 

 

Aptly named little buggers, they smell like a combination of old musty discloth and un-run garbage disposal.  They've got this baby poo colored sticky stuff on them and I'm totally grossed out.  Just these two smell up the whole front yard.

And, from a distance, they look like some gross serial licker is buried all but his tongue under my mulch.

Gee-ross.

Hah.  Wasn't that a charming post.  Hope you aren't reading this while you eat lunch. 

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

Mother's Day present I bought for my self and wrapped for myself and put in husband's closet for the 4 weeks until I could open it Sunday.  Shameful.  Shhh.  It makes my heart sing.  I'm officially a bag hag and I hate myself for it.  Isn't she pretty?

Some of the flowers I ordered for myself while I was ordering my mothers their flowers.  I couldn't help it.  Serves me right that I think the lilies, while absolutely gorgeous, smell like feet.

The yellow sweater.  She is nearly finished.  Sewn together and woven in.  All that's left to do is pick up and knit the neckline.  That's all.  All that's left.  And damn if I haven't done it 4 times, none to my satisfaction.    Perhaps five is the charm...

So I let her sit while I cast on and knit the back and half of the front of a sweater out of this Sakura that I practically stole from Rachel.   Too lazy to take a picture of the sweater, and I'm not even sure it will make it to the point where a picture will be worth it.  While I love the yarn with an aching yearning pounding love, the pattern support is practically nil and I don't want to make a Clapotis right now... I want to make a sweater.

So I dropped everything and read a super trashy novel in 24 hours starting yesterday at 3 p.m.  So trashy I can't even tell you the name of it...

I seriously need to accomplish something worthwhile  and not selfish soon...  Except that QVC has a TSV coming up in the next few days  that needs my attention.

I'm Ramping Up

And I'll make an assumption that you, dear reader, are not surprised at that fact. 

I know that this is a hot topic, but this is my blog and I'm going to voice an opinion here. 

The media of this country has perpetrated a hoax on us.  Strong words, I know, but that's how I feel in light of recent revelations here at our house.

The constant coverage and special reports about the so-called Swine flu have created an atmosphere of panic and thoughtless behavior.  As I said yesterday, there is no way for a thinking person to use the national media, even including (sadly) NPR, to make a rational decision concerning this risk.  We have only the facts couched in supposition and inuendo and exageration and outright misleading information which we must tease out for ourselves. 

The doomsday scenarios and pictures of people with masks have apparently made many Americans terrified of each other. 

Yesterday, it hit home for me. 

A lovely Mexican-American (yes, she's a citizen as are her husband and children) woman cleans my house.  That relationship, my friends, is an intimate one, and I trust Norma implicitly.  She's cheerful, responsible, funny, smart (her English is way better than my Spanish), and she brings me killer tamales.  What else would you want from a person who has access to all of your stuff?

Yesterday we talked a little about the flu and whether or not it had impacted her mother and siblings who still live in Northern Mexico.  She said that there was little evidence of a problem there.  That the schools are open and she knows of no one who is sick. 

Then Norma told me of the problems here.  She was told by one of her clients, for whom she's been cleaning for years BTW, not to come to the house for a month.  A month.  That's a month's income.  Norma asked the woman why and she hemmed and hawed and finally admitted that she was afraid Norma might bring the flu to the house.  Really.  Norma's had no more contact with anyone who's been to Mexico in the last 2 months than I have, but she talks like she might have...  She's so mad that she's told the woman to find someone else to clean for her.  I don't blame her.

And two of her friends, one who drives a city bus and one who works at Big Box Mart, have been told to stay away from work for 2 weeks.  Without pay.  Without symptoms.  They are Mexican.

Now, them's fightin' words, folks.

Since 9/11 we've had an ugly mentality in this country.  It's one that displays xenophobia and hysteria and it's darned unattractive. 

I personally am boycotting all national media that doesn't feature Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.   I've read the reports from the CDC on their website for myself.  A little hysterical, but at least is primary source material.  Yeesh.

P.S. -- Rachel, I started a new sweater with the yarn I stole out from under you.  I'll put up pictures later. 

Good Morning, Campers!

Normally at this time of day I'd be chivvying Dear Son about the house trying to get ready to leave for carpool (starts at 6:20 a.m. this thing does), but he is at his 6th grade class trip to the Teton Mountains this week and dear daughter doesn't have to make an appearance anywhere until 7:30. 

First things first.  The Husband of the Year award goes to my dear one this year for sheer gardening prowess and determination.  Witness.

   

Starting at the top:  nearly glow-in-the-dark impatiens across the front of the house (gorgeous!); bright cypress ground cover, bamboo, and spiderwort near the grill in the sun; hostas in lots of colors and viburnum in the shade at the back of the patio garden; and finally flowering something in the frying pan that is the west side of the house (he also has a weeping cherry that goes here but he hasn't decided yet where exactly to place it).  All that in addition to cutting the grass this weekend as the yard boy is gallivanting about the mountains out west. 

How about a round of applause.  There was increased Tylenol consumption in the house yesterday evening...

I wish you could smell this lilac.  I've got two, one in front and one in back, so every time I step out of a door this time of year, lilac hits me square between the eyes.  It doesn't get any better than that.    Next week the mock orange will bloom and fill my yard with that heady scent.  I love this time of year in St. Louis. 

How about a series of bullets in place of more random updates...

• Book Club on Sunday night here was fun, but I feel the thing kind of dying.  Most did read the book this time (and admittedly, I'm often one who doesn't read or go prepared to talk), but we hardly talk of the books anymore.  We spend a couple of hours socializing -- not that there's anything wrong with that, I guess.  I guess that preparation is the key... and someone needs to guide the conversation and keep it on the book.  But it's so much more fun to talk babies and such right now.  Still somehow, it feels like we've strayed.  The Darn Good Chocolate cake I made from the Cake Mix Doctor book was in fact darn good though...
• Each day we get an update and a set of pictures from one of the teachers on the trip with Dear Son.  Very considerate, I think.  And fun to look through.  I don't think of myself as a helicopter parent, and Son travels well, but it's still fun to see where he's been each day.  Yesterday was snowshoeing in the mountains.  Somehow I find that hard to picture ; )  He's wearing handknits in the pictures as all of the hats I got the men for Christmas (Mizzou and OSU) have disappeared so I sent him with my own hat.  That went over very well by the way... not.  If you want a link to the pics (I won't bore you with them here) let me know and I'll forward it to you.
• Dear Son and Dear Daughter have both had birthdays in the last two weeks.  16 and 12 now.  Time flies.
• The Swine Flu coverage gives me a rant.  How can any of us make an intelligent decision about our risk level when the media is screaming at us all the time?! 

And finally?  The bulk of the knitting on the yellow sweater is done.  Here it is blocking (I never block before I sew, but I'm treating this sweater with reverence since I love it so much.)

Click to embiggen.  Whew.  She is soft and lovely and subtly shaded with orange and God I was sorry to finish the cabling.