2009 - MY year!

I LOVE this template!

This is so ME. So the secret me. The one who, if I did not live in a house full of males, would have a house full of pink-flowered chintz and ruffles and sweet peas.

Christmas has come, gone and left a trail. Everyone seemed to enjoy a fairly mellow day. We had to laugh. At 4:00 am Christmas morning I was on my way out of the bathroom when I ran into DH on his way in, and DS2 was making his way down the hallway, just coming in from watching movies at a friend's house. Major gridlock in the hallway! I figured we wouldn't see DS2, then, until Christmas afternoon, but he was up at 8:00 or so, ready to open presents. About 2:00 the rest of my family started to arrive, with dinner at about 3:25. It all came together perfectly, if I do say so myself. After dinner were more presents, then a "chocolate themed" dessert.

I had spent the five days of winter break before Christmas cleaning (with a few hours here and there for final shopping) so the house is in pretty good shape for the after-break. I really want to start school on Monday the 5th with my room cleaned and the house in decent order. The tree and other decorations will come down slowly (goal is always to have it all down by Valentine's Day) but I'm not touching that tree until I have a sane storage solution for it.

My good intentions pretty well flew the coop for the first three days after Christmas, however, thanks to my Christmas present. DH and DS2 gave me an ipod nano 4g (with 8 gig memory) and I've spent three days syncing a lifetime's collection of music over. Yeah, I know the CD wasn't widely available until the early 1980s and I've been collecting music a lot longer than that, but believe it or not (and I'm having a hard time believing it myself) I've been able to gather up most of the older music I remember on CDs. Gotta love the concept of "greatest hits." I'm still looking for a few really old songs from the 1960s but I'll track them down eventually. I've used about 7 of my 8 gigs and managed to transfer Matt Harding's "Dancing 2008" so now when I need a little pick-me-up I have it.

My blogoversary is in a few days (no, no contest planned) and I took the opportunity to go back through the archives and reflect a little. I have to admit, it was rather depressing. I really don't want to let this year go by and have accomplished so little - again. I decided to start by choosing just a couple of pieces to determine to finish this year. In cross stitch, I think I'll go for this one:

There's not that much to do. Leaves, seed pods and snow on the branch, a cluster of green leaves behind the bird (you can see the start of one) and snowflakes throughout. And the "reward" is a brightly-colored striped stocking hanging from the branch. I have to decide how to finish it. I have some pretty Christmas fabrics with "glitter" that might work up into a pretty pillow, but pillows get thrashed around here so I might just frame it.

I've also packed up (into a tote) my embroidery blocks for the Winter Wonderland quilt by Crabapple Hill. I've done a couple of blocks already.

I will have to sit through lots of meetings for the rest of the year (many of them boring as hell) so want to have some handwork to help keep me awake.

I also have to put together a small kit to have in my purse all the time. I find myself sitting around waiting rooms a lot lately and it drives me nuts. I appreciate that my doctors are willing to give their patients all the time they need, but since I have to take late afternoon appointments they are usually 45 minutes to an hour behind schedule by the time it's my turn. If I always have a little kit with me, I can pull it out for fabric therapy to keep me calm.

Of course, this means I have to buy a new purse, too.

I think I will also pull a couple of incomplete projects to try to finish: The foundation pieced wallhanging I've been working on for three years, now, is at the top of that list. The problem has been lack of a place to work, but I think I've just about got that problem handled. I also have a small quilt that is ready for hand quilting (in fact, I've already started) that is haunting me. I talk myself out of working on it because I've nowhere to put it when it's done, but I think this is one incomplete project that is crippling me so I need to finish it.

I'd also like to get confident about freehand machine quilting and embroidery this year. I have a couple of panels that I could work on to practice (I took a class and - other than having to fight my Pfaff Lemon - did fairly well so I think I just need practice).

Most of my resolutions, though, revolve around getting the yard under control and keeping the house presentable (although it's a long way from being a house to enjoy living in; we're going to have to wait until the economy picks up again and we can unload the "investment" properties before we have any money to fix this place up.)

One thing that has to happen is that this house has to be put into some kind of shape where it's easier to maintain. Toward that goal, I've been sorting and flinging and packing things to donate away. It's a time-consuming process but I do feel a little better. I have a couple of boxes of books to give away Monday (which freed space for the flotsam books that have cluttering the table spaces.) I've also been wading through the stacks of papers that have made it impossible to keep my work area functional. Managed to log some family history stuff into the computer, and all the little slips of paper with people's names and phone numbers are gone (and the information in the computer, too.) I'm going to Michael's today for some 12 x 12 project boxes which will finish up my room. I have two pictures to be framed (have frames and mat board in the family room to finish them up this afternoon).

I'm still dealing with the same "down in the dumps" feelings that I had last time, although things are getting better. It's so unlike me to not be able to rally myself that I started looking for physical explanations and, in that quest, read through the side effects of the blood pressure medication my cardiologist doubled for me just about the time I started feeling so sad all the time. Turns out depression is a side effect of this drug. I'll be talking to him about this on Thursday when I have my follow-up appointment.

I think that 2009 will be another challenging year. I wish I could face it with my usual optimism, but whether it's the meds I take or just being beaten down by circumstances a little too long, the best I can do at this point is commit to "one day at a time" with a goal of accepting what I cannot change.

I do HOPE more for all of us, however!


I need a favor. This is called "Autumn Welcome" and is a Teresa Wentzler piece that appeared in the 1989 Just CrossStitch. I would really love to do this piece but, alas... Does anybody have a source for old (really old) issues? Or do you know if it appeared in a book at a later date? Any clues how to track it down would be welcomed!

Yusuf (Cat Stevens) - Peace Train - Nobel Concert 2006

My wishes for us all in 2009

The Tree

I finally got the tree the rest of the way up.

It's not such a bad tree, after all.

Which is good, since it's probably going to be up until next Christmas.

And the one after that.

And the one after that.

And...

Cute Animal Christmas Song

Dubba dubba dum dum dubba dubba dum.

Thanks, Jace.

Holiday Blues

What a downer I am.


I never thought I would give up my dream of the "perfect" Christmas (in the material sense) but I admit it's pretty far out of grasp this year. I've always enjoyed the whole process of Christmas. My goal is to have a sparkling clean house first, then fill it with Christmas finery, then collect gifts for my loved ones, then make cookies and breads and other treats. In my dream Christmas this is all done by Christmas Eve so that I can be in my recliner all day, watching Christmas movies and eating Snickerdoodles.

In years past I've gotten close. Before I started working I could get the house clean and dressed and cookies made. But I've never been able to relax on Christmas Eve. It's been OK because I've always also known that all that material stuff is outside what's really important, which is being with the people you love in a spirit of selflessness.

This year I'm having a real hard time grabbing onto that. I can't seem to shake my funk over just where I am right now. Instead of having moved into my new retirement home (which was scheduled in the life plan for last month), I'm still stuck in the falling down home that still has the original avocado green kitchen tile that came with the house when we bought it 34 years ago. I'm still working at a job that I stopped liking about ten years ago. My retired husband is so busy with his retirement activities that he doesn't have time to clean the house (as promised) and I'm in a perpetual state of disgust over the place. What a dilemma! Deal with the resentment of living in filth, or live with the resentment of doing it myself on top of working full time.

Then he has the nerve to say (re: the weedy flower beds in the front yard) that I don't seem to "want" to weed anymore. Hello? I am a true gardener. The sign of a true gardener is that we actually LIKE to weed. Just how much energy am I supposed to have, oh ye who has hired a gardener to do your one chore, mow the lawn. (In fairness, he was willing to have said gardener "weed" the flower beds. The guy took the weed whacker to them. NOT a good idea.)

I haven't been able to talk myself out of this. Or Disneyland my way out of it. Or shop my way out of it. Or visit my way out of it. Or internet my way out of it. Or walk my way out of it.

Or eat my way out of it.

So this post is an attempt to write my way out of it.

Thank you for your patience.

One frustration has been the Christmas tree.

We moved to an artificial tree years ago when my son developed asthma. Because I'm picky about how the lights should look, I took over that part of decorating the tree. After a couple of years of taking them off each year after the holiday, I decided to try just folding the tree up with the lights on like the store trees. What a mess! I wound the lights around and around the branches and each year the folding process cut through the wires enough that I've been having to find the broken strands and replace them - two or three at a time - every year. So, this year I decided to replace them all (since I can no longer find which ones are the broken strands without taking them all off anyway) and use clips rather than winding. Target had eight boxes of clips. It is taking way more clips than I imagined. I bought all eight boxes; two trips to the store which is clear the hell the other side of town, three if you count the trip I took when they hadn't received replacement stock. Our tree is in three sections and I ran out of clips just two branches short of finishing the first section. One more trip to Target (still no clips) yesterday. Yesterday afternoon DS2 gave me a little advice as to where to shop for a Christmas gift for DH so I went to another town and stopped at their Target where (hallelujah) they had more clips. As of last night the tree is up and lighted. Today, ornaments!

Even the Happiest Place on Earth wasn't able to fix me. I took Mom last Wednesday and we spent a nice day at the resort. We have a nice routine. California Adventure for two turns on Soarin' Over California, then over to Disneyland for the rest of the day. We took in a Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show, did some shopping and then spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening with the Ragtime piano player at Coke Cornerl.  Nothing better than enjoying the Christmas decorations (which I can't share here because I can't manage to get a decent picture at night) and people watching with piano as the soundtrack.

When I got home, I had received a package from Primitive Stitches. I was too tired to do more than take a shower and go to bed, but I grabbed the package to take to school and, from there, to the cardiologist's office. There's always a long wait for the afternoon appointments in that office and I was delighted to be able to flip through these delightful designs (all beautifully printed on card stock) as I waited. As I enjoyed my patterns, though, I was getting more and more irritated by the gross cigarette smell coming, I thought, from the couple sitting next to me. They were called into the examining area, though, and the smell persisted. I realized then that the smell was coming from the packet of patterns. I highly recommend this designer. The designs are terrific and well-produced and the service was excellent. Just be aware, if you're a non-smoker, that you may need to do some airing out or recopying of the patterns if you can't handle the smell of stale cigarette smoke.

Friday was December 5, the anniversary of Walt Disney's birthday. I've made myself a tradition of taking a personal day to go by myself (or with my sister, if she's available) to lay a flower at the flagpole in Town Square (where Walt's welcome speech rests on a plaque). This year the plaque was covered by the sound booth for the Candlelight Procession and living Christmas tree presentations later that weekend.

I did enjoy the new Pixie Hollow with the opportunity to have a picture taken with two of the faeries. It was quite a long wait but I got some pictures of the new faerie sculpture garden.

Rosella is my favorite of the Neverland Faeries...

But even my pictures are depressing. Three months of walking the treadmill, 45 minutes at a time, at least four days a week (most weeks five) and I'm still not losing any weight. Which is why I'm eating again.

Which isn't going to fix anything.

I had planned to go on the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion, but while I waited in the picture line at Pixie Hollow I aggravated my (arthritic?) hip and had to rest for a while. I decided to go to my favorite lunch place - Carnation Plaza - for a late lunch/early dinner. There is always another line to wait in there and after I'd been there about twenty minutes a middle schoo- aged boy (yes, I can spot them) "joined" the large group ahead of me. About a minute after he got there, another five people "joined" him. However, once the large group was seated it was obvious that this boy was not with their group, but had cut into line in front of me. Turns out (obvious from the "Thanks for saving our place for us, Brock" conversation) that his group thought they had left him to keep a spot in line while they shopped, but that dear little Brock had lit out on his own and cut into line just before they returned. Now, Disneyland is supposed to be my getaway, my happy place to forget about what I do on a daily basis. But this behavior is exactly part of what's wrong with our education system. Kids don't do what they are supposed to do and get away with it. Should I say something? Will it make a difference? I turned to the woman (grandmother? aunt?) closest to me and said, "Are you not with that large group?" She answered, "No, we aren't." "Then," I continued, "you need to know that that boy was not in the line keeping your spot. He cut into the line just a minute ago." Did they ask the boy? No. Did they move to the back of the line? No. His mom said, "You can go ahead of us," to me. To which I replied, "Well you need to let all these people who have been waiting with me go, too." Right at that moment the hostess (who had already made a list of the half-dozen parties waiting in the line) came looking for me as the party of one on her list. My table was ready and she was very confused because, according to her list, I should have been at the front of the line. "There you are!" she exclaimed with confusion written across her brow. "What happened?" I answered that "this group" had cut into the line. She apologized as she seated me and said "We can't allow them to get away with that."

That was the end of my involvement but, again, this is a huge problem with more and more kids in our schools. This child made a poor choice and there should have been a consequence. The appropriate thing for the family to do would have been to move to the end of the line. Instead, they chose - I assume - to believe that the adult was lying and to keep their place in line. Which is what happens more and more at my school. The parents believe the kid's lies rather than the teacher and enable their child to just continue to make poor choices.

I let that whole episode go and finished my lunch. Took in one of the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies shows (a different group and different show than I usually see), then headed to the Haunted Mansion to see the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. Which was my last attempt to do a ride. The stand-by line went all the way out onto the street - clearly not good for my sore hip to wait another hour for an attraction. I headed back to Pooh Corner to see if there was anything new for DH's Eeyore collection (nope) then headed back to Main Street. I overshopped for myself then found a seat on a bench for the parade (a two-hour wait). The parade was fun. I had originally planned to see the fireworks, but that was another three hours away and the crowds were getting to me so I decided to come home early.

I was grateful that the traffic was not too bad.

Which brings me back around to the Christmas tree. I really do want to finish what has become not a pleasure but a chore so I will end this whining and get to it. Shower first, I think. Maybe once I get the tree done and the room vacuumed I will feel a little Christmas cheer-ier.

VISA Card World Currency TV Commercials

Oops! This commercial is only seen in Asia right now but here it is in English.

Again, I love you, Matt. I needed a giggle today.

Visa 最新廣告-Matt Harding 環遊世界travel happy-好笑.wmv

LOL! I love you, Matt!

I'm lucky to have a job.

I'm lucky to have a job.
I'm lucky to have a job.
I'm lucky to have a job.
I'm lucky to have a job.
I'm lucky to have a job.
I'm lucky...

Twilight

Just got back from watching Twilight and thought I'd share my two cents with anyone who hasn't yet 1) seen the movie or 2) read the book.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a paperback edition of Twilight at Costco. I recognized the title as one I've seen being passed from student to student in my classroom, and they've been excited about the movie coming out. So, I decided to pick up the book and check it out. Halfway through Twilight I went to Amazon and ordered the full set.

Only takes about 200 pages to get hooked.

I finished the series and loved it. Pure escapism at its best. A friend calls it "brain crack." At first the story seems a tad disjointed and shallow, but taken as a whole (all four books) it really fills in nicely. Leaves you hoping there will be a fifth and maybe a sixth book.

Anyway, I was impressed with the stills and trailers coming out of the movie so was looking forward to seeing it, which I did tonight. I have to say I was a little disappointed. A reviewer said it well. Today, most book adaptations are well over two hours in length. This book, produced by a young company (which, one assumes, did not have the capital to do this movie to the fullest) needed at least 2.5 hours to show well on the screen. I missed the development of the relationships within the Cullen family as well as between Edward and Bella at school. I also missed the development of the relationship between Bella and Alice.

On the positive side, however, the casting for this movie was dynamite. Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen is worth the ten bucks admission and the future dvd purchase. I like the fuller Charlie character. Billy is a fuller character in the movie, too; credit to Gil Birmingham for making the most of the few seconds he has on the screen. Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) is terrific. (Are these actors well-known or newcomers? I don't go to movies very often and don't recognize anyone except Pattinson from Harry Potter.) Rosalie's antagonism had too much screen time because they didn't really make a point. Emmett didn't get enough time to develop his devil-may-care attitude.

Sounds like they will go ahead with New Moon. Here's one fan who hopes Twilight is successful enough to get the investors to give the producers what they need to really develop the story as it deserves.

For this one, I would suggest going to the movie first. The locations are useful to getting a visual of the book setting. Because the characters are so spot on, having those visuals wouldn't hurt for the reading, either. Then, with the sketchy movie version of the story tucked away, go read the books and immerse yourself in the full story with fingers crossed that they do better with the next installments.

I snagged this from Jennifer. I haven't done a meme in a while (and am desperate to get out of pontification mode). This looks like fun.


1. Political show - I would not have survived the Bush administration without Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. Colbert's "The Word" helped, too. But for sheer political eloquence I agree with Jennifer that Keith Olberman must be at the top of the list.

2. Picnic food - Don't do picnics, but have very fond memories of breakfast (bacon and scrambled eggs cooked on the Coleman stove) in the park before going to the zoo.

3. Mixed drink – I don't drink alcohol (never have). Can I count an orange juice, strawberry and banana smoothie?

4. U.S. President – Bill Clinton (although I wouldn't want him for a personal friend).

5. Kind of student to teach – the ones who aren't afraid to let their faces light up when they "get" it (increasingly rare by the eighth grade).

6. Hobby you do or wish you still did - cross stitch and primitive embroidery; quilting; reading. I wish I were retired so I could get back to gardening. I wish I could find someone with a kiln so I could finish up the dozen porcelain dolls for which I have greenware stashed in my closet (my ex-teacher closed her shop when her parents became ill and she never re-opened.

7. Sports commentator – Vin Scully

8. Sport to watch on TV – Dodger baseball. I also enjoyed watching the curling during the 2002 winter Olympics.

9. Animal to have as a pet - I loved our Akita and would have another in a heartbeat. Also enjoy fish. Once upon a time I was into Himalayan and Persian cats and had 14 (did the whole show/breed route for a short time). No better way to decide cats are disgusting creatures. I'd loved them all my life and am still hopeful one will capture my heart again sometime (but don't know if I'll every get over gagging over the spit smell of their fur.)

10. Halloween costume you have worn – The last time I wore a Halloween costume was when I wore a long white robe with hood up to sneak into a concert my kids were playing at a local hotel. I would never do it again, but they were doing an Oingo Boingo cover show and I really wanted to see it without cramping their style.

11. Kind of dessert - If it ain't chocolate, it ain't worth eating. I make a killer mousse.

12. Comic strip - Wow, I haven't read the comics in years. Historically my favorites were Calvin and Hobbes (my younger son was Calvin) and The Far Side.

13. Style or make of footwear - Never got the girl shoe gene. The most comfortable shoes I've ever worn were my Mickey Mouse Crocs and I've worn them out. Great for standing and lecturing all day.

14. Ice cream flavor - Hagen Daz Chocolate Chocolate Chip

15. College or university president – Yeah, I keep up with that for sure.

16. Internet news source – CNN.com

17. Vacation spot - Big Sur in California or Eden, Utah (Eden would be first except that we're hoping to move there permanently so then it wouldn't be our vacation spot, would it?) For mini vacations, Disneyland.

18. Wine – Don't drink wine, but I like foods with dry white wine in them (like fondue or Hunter's Chicken.)

19. Way to waste time instead of working – This would be it.

20. Student excuse for late work – "The printer ran out of ink." My response is usually something like, "You've had three weeks to do this. Why were you printing it at the last minute?" Believe it or not, last year a student tried to turn in a late project (I don't accept late work) on a Friday and I wouldn't take it. Had the damn thing in his hand. The following MONDAY the kid's liar of a father showed up and claimed the reason his son couldn't turn it in on the due date was that their printer had broken down and Dad had to find the one that worked in the garage over the weekend. So, you want to know what's wrong with our schools?

21. Reality show – No such thing. Nothing filmed and shown on television (except MAYBE the news) is reality. I've never watched one and never will.

22. Jewelry on a man – One pierced earring, a simple stud or small hoop. No glitter. Very sexy.

23. Pizza topping – Italian sausage on extra cheese.

24. Children's movie - Disney's Sleeping Beauty. (Although I also love Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and Toy Story. The new Tinkerbell is pretty adorable, too.)

25. Celebrity you wish would retire - Those Hilton women. I can't figure out why they're celebrities.