Happy Sunny Sunday. I spent today in the first part of a training called Crisis Intervention System Management (CISM) and will spend all of tomorrow there as well. It is sponsored by the Red Cross and the contents are supposed to make me a better communicator when there is a crisis and enable me to help individuals in a crisis. Unfortunately, I was soooooo sleepy today that I am afraid I didn't pay much attention. I tried, I really did but I was having a hard time staying awake until I took out PK's Spey Valley sock and proceeded to work on it. I highlighted important passages in my book and listened and yawned. A lot. Hopefully, I'll get more sleep tonight and tomorrow I'll be more awake.


Emily Jane will be 22 on April 2nd. My 9 lb 9 oz, 21 inch baby with the 14 3/4 inch head has grown into a lovely, intelligent young woman with a good sense of humor. She invited us and Jim's parents for dinner last night to celebrate her birthday. She told us she wanted money towards the purchase of a new laptop instead of a gift. We agreed to this but wanted to make it special. So we did, in our own special way. PK bought a large stuffed penguin (ask Em to tell you about the Penguin Wars). I went to the bank and asked for a large number of one dollar bills. Kate disembowled the penguin and stuffed it with some beautiful roving that she bought for Em and the one dollar bills that PK crumpled up. See the dollars and roving inside the penguin? Kate did a good job. She stuffed the bird full of dollars and put some of the original stuffing back to hide the fact that the dollar bills were there. While they were doing that, I was putting together the ingredients for the chocolate torte we were taking for desert. This is a favorite of Em's and I had offered to make it for her. After an hour in the oven, I thought it was strange that I couldn't smell any chocolaty goodness. When I checked, the torte was still liquid and the oven was not even vaguely warm. After much consultation with PK, I learned that the igniter in the oven was not working. Unable to obtain a new one on Saturday afternoon, we stopped at the bakery and bought a cake on our way.







We travelled over the Benjamin Franklin bridge and past the Philadelphia Art Museum. That beautiful blue river is the Schuykyll (pronounced skoo-kill)River. It doesn't look that blue in real life. I tried to get some photos of the guys rowing on the river but we were moving too fast. There are a lot of bridges that look like this along the way. They're beautiful and old looking. It takes about an hour to get to Em's house if there is no traffic. We lucked out yesterday and made it there easily.


Em was glad to see us since we came bearing chocolate cake and a large green present. She was less thrilled when she opened the box and found a large stuffed penguin. She reluctantly posed for a photo with her new friend. And then she realized that the penguin felt a little stiff and not quite soft. She quickly opened the seam that Kate had sewn and was quite happy to see what was inside . Of course, she had to pull out all the ones and flatten them out. It took a while.



We "celebrated" Earthhour by turning off all our lights before we left the house and Em turned all the lights in her house at 8 o'clock. We had candles aplenty and it made for such a nice atmosphere that when 9 o'clock came, we didn't turn them back on. And we noticed that some of Em's neighbors had turned off their lights as well. We had cake candles in the dark. Can you tell that the candles have different color lights?

As for my health. I have an appointment with a surgeon on April 16th to discuss the gall bladder issue. That was his earliest appointment. I'm just hoping the gall bladder decides to behave itself until then. I'll have my cell phone sitting in front of me during the training so that when my gyn calls me I can leap up and take the call. I did some research on cysts and the information is all over the place. Some is reassuring, some less so. I am not borrowing trouble but will wait until I hear from the doctor.

It's hard to believe the weekend is over. It went by so fast. Friday night we saw Horton hears a Who and laughed out loud. It was a perfect Friday night movie. And tonight, PK is taking Kate out for driving lessons. I am sitting here with my feet up and being perfectly lazy. It feels good. I hope you all had a pleasant weekend.

Just a quick update on the health front. I called the gyn several times this week to find out the results of the ultra sound and got no response. Yesterday, they told me that the doctor hadn't looked at the results yet but she would and would get back to me. Today I left another message and then called the radiology place and asked them to fax the results to my primary care physician (pcp). I really like my pcp. He is straightforward and doesn't play around. And I just happened to have a regular blood pressure appt with him today. He told me that the results show that I have endometrial cysts and ovarian cysts. Unfortunately, he's not comfortable with making any real recommendations. The gyn folks called me to tell me that another doctor took a look and saw the cysts but my doctor would have to decide what to do to follow up. So, now I have to wait until Monday when she is back in the office. The nurse told me she would put my results on top of the pile. I'm not holding my breath. I'm kind of surprised because they have always been right on top of things.

I did talk to my pcp about having my gall bladder taken out. I found out I had gall stones over a year ago while having an ultrasound of my kidneys. They haven't bothered me so I left them alone. While Kate and I were cooking on Saturday, I was experiencing pain that took my breath away. It has been coming back on and off since then. The doctor told me I have 2 options and he'd let me choose which one to try. I can make an appt with a surgeon and have the gall bladder taken out while I am not in excruciating pain and rolling on the floor screaming for pain killers. OR I could wait until I am on the floor in the emergency room rolling around in excrutiating pain and screaming for pain killers and have to wait days for a surgical appointment. He recommended the first one. I have to agree. And then he asked me who was my surgeon. I laughed. I haven't had a body part removed since I had an appendectomy in 1972. He gave me a surgeon's name and I will call tomorrow to make an appointment. As I am sitting here in extreme discomfort right now (but not rolling and screaming), I hope I don't have to wait too long. It's fairly easy surgery and probably won't require a night in the hospital. And the pain will go away.

And I wonder if they can just look in on those ovaries and check things out. I mean, while they're already in there and all. How hard can that be?

Easter was quiet and lovely here. The predicted snow/rain showers never materialized. Instead, we had a lovely blue sky, puffy cloud day. It was a little cold but that didn't matter. On Saturday, Kate and I spent the whole day together. We baked cookies. We had Easter eggs, Easter stars, Easter cows, Easter Mooses, Easter Elephants and some chicks. What? You all don't have Easter cows or elephants or mooses? That's too bad. They were delicious.

We also baked babka. This is a recipe from Peter Kevin's polish grandmother. It is a bread we only make for Christmas and Easter. This one has dried cranberries instead of raisins and was just as yummy as it looks. We also made the baked beans and potato salad for Easter dinner. There was a lot of laughter in our kitchen. During baking times, we worked on a jigsaw puzzle. These are a favorite but we don't often take the time anymore. It was a terrific day.

Easter Sunday was a quiet day. Em and Jim came late in the afternoon for dinner. There was chocolate, of course, and dyed eggs. There was also a lot of knitting. I finished the first MacGreggor's garden sock that I was test knitting for Susan. You can see the entwined heart design on the side and the rabbit ears on the foot. This is Shi Bui yarn in color 1601 (I looked up Shi Bui online. It means "elegance with a touch of bitterness" Interesting name for a yarn company). It was a prize in a blog contest and I thought the color would work well with the pattern. I started with a 54 gram skein of yarn and was getting nervous as the ball dwindled down into nothing and I still had a pattern repeat to go so I opted for the safe route. I only did one pattern repeat down the side of the leg. I cut off about 20 rows. I finshed with a 4 gram little ball of yarn. I don't think it would have been enough to finish. Since Susan didn't give yarn amounts in the pattern (duh, it's a test knit!) I wasn't sure how much I would use. I wanted to be able to make a pair so using the second skein for the first sock was not an option because the yarn was a prize and is not available around here. The sock is a toe up pattern, my first. I'm not sure I like this method. I'll let you know after I finish the second sock!

Today it was back to work after a long weekend. Typical Monday. Two med clinics and since I was off Thurs and Fri, no prep work was done. I ran around like a madwoman today. It was so nice to come home to my peaceful, quiet home. I walked in the door and sighed. It's good to come home.

Finally, the daffodils are starting to bloom. This should in no way be considered evidence of Spring here on the eastern US coast as there are snow showers in the forecast for tomorrow. Put all those hopes for warm, spring-like temps on hold. The National Weather People said that we are in an area that is likely to exprience much flooding this spring because the ground has more water in it than it has had for the last 75 years. Parts of the midwest got 12 inches (!!) of rain over the last few days. I can't imagine that much rain outside of a hurricane.

The test procedures went well. The mammo was clear and I am relieved that I get to go back to screening mammos instead of diagnostic ones. I think it has to do with the number of pictures they take. The ultra sound was a little more "interesting". I'll spare you the gory details but it is definitely unpleasant to have a stranger poking around in your girlie bits with a long pole. Nuff said. The part that irritates me is that I have to wait for them to formulate a report and send it to the doctor who will then call me with the results. But I want to say thank you for all the good wishes. It made me smile inwardly to think of all of you there in the room. What a crowd!

I am working on the McGreggor's Garden sock. This toe up sock stuff is surely a strange creation. If you look at the bottom of the sock, you can't tell the toe from the heel. See? I have never done toe up socks and it has been an adventure. Here is a shot of the top of the sock. If you look closely you can see Peter's ears there in the lettuce leaves. The color is more green than the photos show. It took me 3 tries to get the concept of the short row toe down. I'm still not sure I got it right but the directions were clear and I followed them. This whole "wrapped stitch" business was a little confusing at first. The socks looked enormous as I started them but I was getting gauge so I kept on. I made them a little shorter than I would normally because they are wide and this way they stretch to fit my feet (I have wide size 9 and a half (42 european) feet). Susan writes a good pattern and I am ready to begin the cuff. I keep looking at the dwindling ball of yarn and hoping I'll have enough. The scale says so but my eyes are not so sure. I worked on these while waiting for my tests to be done yesterday and they kept my mind occupied so I didn't feel too stressed.

It's hard to believe that Sunday is Easter. It's too early and I can't make myself feel ready for it. I have not put up the decorations I usually do and I haven't washed the windows and curtains like I usually do. Today I am going to clean the house and start the baked beans for Easter dinner but I think it's too cold to wash windows. We got some furniture from my brother's mother in law who had to move into an assisted living apartment. She had a sofa bed and I thought it would be a good thing to have. It came with two burnt orange recliner chairs so we took them too. What a change to have bursts of color in the living room. I love walking through there. The sofa is a colonial blue background with orange bits so it all goes together. I still have to bake cookies and babka and make potato salad. That will wait until tomorrow. Em and Jim are coming for dinner on Sunday and hopefully my Aunt Joan will feel up to the trip. And it would be really nice if it didn't snow.....

Get out your black arm bands. Arthur C. Clarke died. You can read a small obit here. If people haven't read his books (and The Nine Billion Names for God is an absolutely wonderful story!) they will recognize the opening bars of 2001; a space oddessy. He changed the way we communciate by asking why satellites couldn't be used for communications. So, as you use your cell phones and your internet services today, give a thought to the men (and women) who's brilliance make it possible.

Bye Arthur. I'll miss you.

What Donna Lee Means

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Happy St Pat's Day if you celebrate it. As I was on my way home on the train today, I saw many young folks dressed in their green finery all headed to South Street in Philadelphia for the sure to be rowdy celebration. Me? I was just glad to be headed home from work after a particularly long day.

I was reading Jejune's blog and followed her link to here. It's an organization called EarthHour. The video explains it better that I can but the jist of it is that on March 29 we all turn off our lights for one hour to ease the burden on the earth. It started in Australia in 2007 and has spread worldwide this year. The statistics were quite impressive and it's definitely worth thinking about. This is a photo of the earth at night. It's from NASA's astronomy picture of the day. Imagine all of those cities going dark for an hour and all of the energy it could save! I am going to sign up and try to convince my family to go along with it as well. We always celebrated Earth Day (April 22) by going to our favorite place in the woods and picking up trash. We would pack zero trash lunches and somedays we would come home with 3 or 4 large trash bags we had found in the woods. We told the girls that it was the price for using the woods which are part of a state park system and are strewn with trash. They actually have fond memories of getting out of the car and picking up trash.

And speaking of trash, who told smokers that it is OK to throw their ashes and butts out of their windows onto the ground? I am getting so offended by this that one day I am going to get myself in trouble because I won't just mutter "pig" to myself, I'll say it aloud.

And now for something completely different. (stolen from Monty Python)

I am test knitting socks for Susan of A few stitches short. (Check out the wonderful designs she has on her web site. She calls it Sunflower Designs and they are gorgeous.) I have never test knit anything before and I'm excited by this. The pattern is called MC Greggor's garden and it's meant to look like Mr. Mc Greggor's garden from Peter Rabbit. There are even little bunny ears down on the foot so you can see Peter hiding in the leaves. The pattern is charming. The interesting thing for me is that it is toe up and I have never done toe up socks before. My first instinct was to convert it to cuff down but I stopped myself. How will I ever learn anything new if I shy away from it? I am an intelligent woman and I can follow directions so I should be able to do this. I am using the lovely green yarn that I won in Nancy's contest and so far I have managed the provisional cast on and am working on the intricasies of wrapped stitches. I'll post some progress shots as I make progress!

Well, thank goodness Monday is over. It's my toughest day of the week with two medication clinics and often they run right through my lunch and I stay late to finish them up. Tomorrow is another busy day as I supervise student interns in social work and have another med clinic in the afternoon. By the time Wed rolls around, I am tired. This week I am only working until Wednesday. Thursday I have a pelvic ultrasound to determine what the lump is that the gyn felt during my last exam. I have had cramps very very often and thought they were part of turning 50 and approaching menopause but maybe they are due to this lump. Thursday morning I will find out and right afterward, I am going for my annual mammogram. Whee! Breast squeezing for fun and profit! Last year, I ended up having an mri because they thought they found something and claustrophobe that I am, it was very traumatic. I am hoping that this year will go more smoothly. I took Friday off just because I could.

I hope you all have a good week!

Two posts in two days! Watch out world! I wanted to share this recipe for Irish soda bread that I found in a magazine so long ago that I can't remember which one. It wasn't even an article but one of those recipes that food companies put out to showcase their products. I think this was Fleischman's margarine but I'm not sure. This recipe may not be terribly authentic but it is really good. When it comes out of the oven and you put a little butter on it, oh my, it is what heaven must taste like. So, without further ado,

Irish Soda Bread

4 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbl baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup margarine
1 egg 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (you can substitute 1 c milk with 1 Tbl lemon juice mixed in)
1 cup raisins
1 Tbl caraway seeds (optional)

Set oven to 350 degrees

Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Cut margarine into mixture until it is the size of small peas. Add raisins and seeds and stir. Mix egg into buttermilk. Mix into flour mixture. Put dough onto well floured board and knead until no longer sticky. Knead carefully and try not to add too much flour. Divide into half and pat each half into a round cake pan (8 inches). Bake for 35 - 40 minutes.

I will admit that I do this in my kitchenaid mixer because I hate the mess of kneading. It comes out just fine if you use the paddle and add flour until it forms a ball.

Now, it's time for a shower and a trip to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for this. I only make it for St. Pat's day. I don't know why. Probably the same reason I only make babka for Christmas and Easter. It makes it special.

Em and Jim are coming for a visit today. The rain held off and PK and El are on their way to the farmer's market and the woods for a hike. Em and I are heading for the yarn store. Happy Saturday!

This has been a blah week. I have come home from work each day and felt so tired. I think it's the switch to Daylight Savings Time. This year it seems to be worse. But you can tell that spring is on the way. There were clear signs all around the house. There were crocuses, and some lovely yellow flowers that I call 'volunteer flowers' because I didn't plant them. They just volunteered to grow beside the path in the back yard. And speaking of the back yard, I can also tell that it's spring because the ducks are back. These ducks are native to New Jersey and can be found in fresh water all year long. We have a flock that inhabits our pool. There is the big duck and many small ones. When the pool is clean, they will float away, enjoying the summer sunshine.

And the socks came out to sit in the sunshine on the front step. Here is PK's brown sock. This is the second one and as you can see, it's not even half done. I am getting tired of all the brown so I started another pair of socks. This is a pair of Go With The Flow socks from 25 Favorite Socks. The yarn is from Art Walk Sock Yarn Club and the color is Flaming June (based on the painting by Henry James). I love this yarn. The colors are striping in an interesting way and I am now past the gusset so I can see if the foot will stripe as well. It's unusual for me to have more than one pair on the needles at a time but the brown was getting to be more than I could bear. The photo shows the color fairly well. It's a pretty chocolate brown. But who wants to work with brown when the sun is shining and for the first time in months you can sit outside in the sunshine and not freeze. I sat on the front step and wore my shawl around my shoulders and knitted in the sunshine. It was the best part of the week.

That and finding out that my 80 year old aunt, who is very dear to me, survived surgery to implant a pace maker in her chest today. My Aunt Elsie is funny and precious to us. The thought of losing her is unbearable. She and my Aunt Joan make up the grandparent portion of my little family. They are wonderful women and it's hard watching them get old.

We are supposed to get more rain this weekend but not the torrential downpours we got last week. Our street lost 4 large trees that were blown down in the storm. There are holes where once there were trees. It's funny to think that in a few weeks we won't notice the holes.

Hope you all have a happy weekend! Hard to believe Easter is next week.

It rained today. It rained all day. Great blasts of heavy rain looking like silver falling from the sky. The clouds were moving quickly and the wind was blowing. Around noon, from my bedroom window, my neighbor's yard looked like this. You can see all the puddles. And it kept on raining. They said we would get 2 1/2 inches of rain and I believe it. And it was warm. Tonight the temp is supposed to go down below freezing and any leftover precipitation will fall as snow. For once, I am not looking forward to snow. It was nice to be warm today. Even if it was wet. I was sitting in the car in a parking lot knitting and waiting for PK and my oldest daughter Elanor to come out of Best Buy and the wind was blowing so hard it blew down a tree. I heard a crack and then saw the tree on the ground. Thankfully, I was far enough away from the little grove of trees that I didn't have to worry. And when we got home we checked out our trees and all are still standing. After so much rain, the ground is soft and with the wind, the trees are more easily blown down.

In knitting news, the shawl was dry this morning and I took a photo. I couldn't get nice action shots because it was so dark inside so this will have to do. I pushed Hobbes out of the way and posed it on the edge of my bed. It is soft and light but feels substantial and warm. I can't wait to wear it out in the world. There are flaws but I'm the only one who sees them and for the first time I'm not going to point them out. I am just going to enjoy it. I am still a fairly new knitter and it has thrilled me to make this and have it come out well.

Now that the shawl is finished, I am determined to finish my Snowflake socks from the Strikke Along (it was in October!). I have turned the heel and am picking up the gusset stitches. All I have to do is finish the foot and I'll have a nice warm pair of house socks. I have a tube of silicone and want to put it on the bottoms to make them slipper socks. I'm not sure it'll work so I'll try it out on a swatch first. I don't want to ruin the socks after all the work that went into them.

I hope you all are having a safe, peaceful and healthy weekend.

Look, Look, Look!!! Here is my Icelandic Lace Shawl!! It's finished. And right now as I type, it is blocking on the spare bed in Kate's room. It's hard to photograph because of the size but with some help from Peter Kevin, I got a few shots. We pulled it pretty hard but couldn't stretch it to the width it was supposed to be. It's supposed to be 76 inches across the shoulders but we could only stretch it to 66 inches. I wonder if it's because my yarn was different? It doesn't matter to me. I was unprepared for how wonderful it would look blocked and I wanted to just stand there and watch it as it dried. It took just over 2 months of knitting to finish. I started December 26th and finished March 7th. (I also knit some socks in there, too.) Once it dries, we'll try for some action shots! It feels weird not to have the bag it was hanging out in here next to me on the bed. I have knit lace before but nothing as large as this. All of my other attempts at lace have been socks. My blocking frame is not finished but I couldn't wait for PK to finish it. Kate is working on a shawl and we'll use it for hers. I used the blocking wires I bought last weekend and some pins. I can't believe how excited this makes me!

I have been steadily working on the Spey Valley socks. I have never used wool like this. It is minimally spun. I tried to get a photo but it was difficult to show just how "natural" this looks. Can you see how "unspun" it looks? It knits up beautifully. I think these socks are some of my 'prettiest' knitting. The stitches are so straight and even. I think these are going to be rather fuzzy socks once they're worn.

I was reading on my daughter, Emily's, blog about how she feels about being grounded and knowing about her family. It made me feel kind of sad. If you'd asked me when I was growing up if my family was close, I would have said yes. It's only now that I have grown up and have raised my family that I can say that I don't think we were close. My parents ruled the house. They didn't encourage us to express our opinions or if we did, they were often shot down. If my dad said the sky was green, it was green. It didn't matter if I thought the sky was purple. I haven't talked to my parents in a number of years. Once I grew up and had an adult relationship, it seemed like they didn't know how to relate to me any more. We never made the transition from parent/child to parent/adult. I used to try so hard to make everyone get along and make nice. It didn't work. I wasn't content to remain a child and they didn't know what to do with me as an adult. My sister just remained in the parent/child relationship and is content with that. My brother got lucky. My parents felt they had "lost" one child (me) and tried harder with him. But even he has only a minimal relationship with them.

All of this led to the founding of our family as a place where opinions are welcome, even if they're not mine. Where everyone gets a say in important decisions that affect the whole family. Where hugs and kisses are everyday events. Where no one is afraid to say "I love you". I feel so fortunate that my family is close. I look forward to sitting around with my daughters and their children and telling family stories and knitting. I can't wait to teach my grandchildren to knit. I love the idea of our family expanding to include new members who bring new opinions to the dinner table.

The best I can do for Em, and El and Kate is to tell them the stories I know of our family. And remind them of their place in the family. My aunts also can be coaxed into telling family stories and they can remember some doozies. (They are not all flattering,either!) I wish I could give them more but I guess it's enough that they grew up knowing they were loved and cherished.

So, I didn't mean to get so profound and on a Friday night, too. Must be the codeine in the cough syrup. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

PMS* contest! Go here to enter. It's a good cause. Promotion of an Etsy shop. And we all want to promote hand made goodness, right?

So head on over and tell them I sent you.

*Promote My Shop

The last few days have brought some knitting goodies into our house. I won a prize in Nancy's contest over at Days Go By. She sent me a package that had this wonderful sticker in it. It's probably a dragon but we here in the Garden State know it's really the Jersey Devil (it says "Ever wonder why some yarns are flame retardant?"). There were some seasonally appropriate stitch markers. I only have plastic ones so these are my first fancy ones and I love them. Oh, and some yarn. Isn't it beautiful? The colors remind me of the ocean as it's supposed to look. You know, how it looks in the Carribean? Thanks, Nancy. You give good prizes.

Over the weekend, Em took Peter Kevin and I to lunch for his birthday. We had some delicious Chinese food and then Kate, Em and I went to Woolbearers. I bought some sock yarn for me. It's their own yarn and the colorway is mahogany.

Kate and Emily bought some roving to use with their spindles. (edited to add: Emily bought two bags of undyed merino roving and gave one to me). When we got home, Kate was showing me how she spins with the spindle. I felt an intense desire to try it, too. So, what to do? I went to Peter Kevin, showed him Kate's spindle and said "Can you make me one of these?" And he did. This is my spindle made from parts from the hobby store. Kate gave me some roving from the bump I gave her for Christmas and this is my first yarn. It is uneven and I am not used to the rhythmn of the process yet but it's fun. I look forward to someday owning a wheel but for now, this is entertaining. I can picture groups of women sitting around talking while the children play, spinning the spindles to make the yarn to make the clothing. I feel like part of a tradition. It feels good.

And I bought some blocking wires. The shawl is in the last stages. I have some of the white to finish in the middle and then I want to put the edging on the top to finish it off more neatly. I am so excited to finish it. PK bought the wood and the brads to build the blocking frame. Although I might have to wait a while since he just got a work bonus and used it to upgrade his computer. I guess he should get the chance to play with his toys, too.