Confectionary Prosthetics. . . .

(I'm going to have to get one of you bloggers to tell me how to see what people search on to get to your blogs etc, to see how much I get off of this oddball title. . .)

I'll explain the title in a bit.

First - I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. There has been *SO* much stuff going on with SukaStar et al and getting so emotional, that it was just impossible to really blog about.

The 2 mind boggling things. . .

1 -Guess who suddenly has an austrian crystal chandelier in their brand new red dining room, hanging over my grandmother's dining room set???

Yup - they took it - without asking anyone. Hopefully there will be a resolution to this soon.

2 -apparently they are furnishing their entire house by shopping at Grandma's house. The RE agent keeps telling us she finds the alarm off every time she goes to visit and the house is trashed. If they want a bookcase - they take it and dump everything else on the floor.

These are just to 2 biggies - there's been some nasty NASTY emotional stuff on everyone's part of up there, even A&E who we thought were decent - even they are making nasty an insensitive comments... - Guess who won't be getting anything handmade for their baby shower??

At any rate - time to jump topics.. (this will happen a few times today.)

So can you believe - that all of this packaging. . .
















Is for THIS??

















Gotta love it eh?? :)

Now - to explain the title...

last weekend (not this just past but the one before) me and the household knives were having some arguments. I cut 2 of my fingers on my new Mandolin slicer. Yup - sliced off little sections of my finger tips... that was fun. Then I was using my Kershaw Mezzaluna (DISTURBINGLY SHARP) and I went to clean it and accidentally ran my forefinger over it - with reasonable amount of pressure. So I had a nice 1/2" long cut that was probably at least 1/8" deep. It was bleeding. A lot. So i called my mom to see if i should get stitches - and she said "pour pepper on it." I said "HELL NO!" (my brother did that once, said it burned like 1000 suns, course it DID stop the bleeding... but no.) So she had me put a damp tea bag over it which did help the clot factor and I was able to bandage it. Then i went back to chopping, and nicked the forefinger on my left hand. at this point I had 4 fingers out of 10 bandaged and I handed the knife to my husband and said "your turn!"

So a week later I finally have no bandaids on my fingers but the big cut is still there - though thankfully finally closed all the way. So yesterday, mom and I are laying in bed watching "The Little Mermaid" which she has never seen. My husband (the pun nut) came in and said,

"just in case we have a repeat of last weekend, I decided to be prepared." And from behind his back he pulls and hands to me a Package of Lady Fingers.

I looked at them for a minute and then threw them at him while laughing hysterically at just how far my hubby will go for a joke. My THRIFTY husband spent MONEY on a joke. :) At which point while laughing I couldn't help talking about my husband's idea of Confectionary Prosthetics! :)

Later that night he brought me a bowl of ice cream with lady fingers... (very tasty dessert.)

And last but not least - for the cute factor of the day... We finally cleared the space so the loveseat was easily accessible by those afraid of giant exercise balls, so they are back at their favorite activity . . . (mister in particular)

Suka Stories!!!! :)

That's right!

I have new Suka stories . . .

So - they finally closed on the house. They have an 80/20 loan - which means the house is *fully* financed and cosigned by auntie em. Now - you have just fully financed a house that's around $700K. So what's the first thing you do with your new house?

a) Move in and relax.
b) Then spend tons of money renovating the house prior to moving in.

Can we guess which one they are doing??? Apparently all of the work is being under the table and paid cash b/c it's cheaper but Star isn't satisfied with the work that is being done.

He claims to have 5 water main shut off valves, 3 thermostats, and 4 circuit breaker panels. And he is bragging about this b/c obviously more is better.

Things they are doing in this brand new house that they just SO loved right. . .

a) New counters in the kitchen (granite we think)
b) New sink in the kitchen
c) Construction of a brand new ISLAND in the kitchen.
d) Replacing ALL carpet
e) Painting and re wallpapering the entire house
f) Finish the entire basement.
g) Re-do the main floor bathroom
h) Since the master bedroom suite is a separate addition, you have to go downstairs and then back up to get to the rest of the upstairs, so they are breaking through that as well.
i) She is Doing the Master Bedroom in Lime Green Toille.

Gods only know what this is all costing. I have to say at least $50 grand.
And they also painted the living room. . . BLOOD RED to match the red in the chairs of the dining room set they "inherited" from my grandmother.

Suka won't move in now because she claims her allergies are too bad with the work being done. So she is staying with 'mom.' Can we say how happy this made my poor cousin when she called to talk to her mother? She calls and suka says "i think she went out" but won't get off her rear end to check. She actually wanted my cousin P to call back and see if Auntie Em would pick up cuz it was too hard for her to go get her.

She says she MIGHT be able to move in when they are working on the basement because that MIGHT be far enough away but she isn't sure.

Meanwhile - this poor child - the sukaspawn. The things they do to that child - in some ways i'd have to think child abuse - but there's nothing we can do for that. . .

So you all heard about he poop puller. so that's number 1.

Apparently there has been no mention of actually child proofing this house. Baby is 9 months old, so one would think you'd want to child proof the house. Apparently not. Why you ask?? Hmm - could it be because the child is not crawling yet? Now granted, 9 months isn't that late for not crawling - some crawl early and some crawl late. However, there is a very specific reason why she isn't crawling yet. It's because . . .

Get this. . . this is too good. . . (sad really) . . .

Apparently, Hello and Auntie Em and everyone else are under ORDERS that the child will NOT be put down. She will be CARRIED everywhere and never to be put on the floor.

They also never feed her in a high chair. She is always held on their laps and fed because Suka claims the high chair back is too straight up and not good for the baby.

I find it interesting that the baby is always smiling and laughing when playing with Hello but soon as Suka walks in the baby starts crying.

The child is getting no chance to develop and learn and grow.

Now, the piece d'resistance.

The other day cousin P called Auntie Em. Suka was there with sukaspawn and Auntie Em was holding the baby. She's talking to P and the baby is screaming. P asks Em "what's wrong with the baby? That's a very angry and mad cry!" So Em says "She wants something I have and I won't give it to her." So P asks what she has and Em says that it's the phone. So P says "So give her the phone! I'll say hi to my niece." Auntie Em says "I can't give it to her, Suka won't let me." And of course P asks her why. The explanation?

.... This is good


.... This is really good. :)

Apparently, Suka won't let her have the phone because she might put it in her mouth, and that would be BAD because . . . .

wait for it . . .

hehehe . . .

The phone is ELECTRONIC!

HEHHE - Enjoy your days!

Life/perception changing things. . .

PainterGirl is hosting Create a Connection for getting to know you. Thought it might be fun to participate a bit. . .

So here goes - she wants to know: "...what book, movie and song not only changed your life, but also changed the way you thought about the medium. It could have been when you were a child or a teenager or just last week. Anytime in your life."

So - Let's see. We'll start early in age. :)

MUSIC: I grew in a musical household. My mother was a flute teacher and my brother and I both played instruments from Fairly young ages. I think the song that really started my love for music of all kinds and struck a chord (sorry for the pun - been with my husband too long) with me was 30,000 pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin. I started hearing this when I was very young as my mother was a *HUGE* Chapin fan - and we used to say "how much do you love me?" and instead of big wide arms and saying THIS MUCH, we would open our arms wide and says "30,000 POUNDS!" :) Growing up I would listen to more Chapin songs and a lot of them would spark conversations about politics and history that songs were based on, along with pyschology and thoughts about the education system etc, as well as hearing about relationships in many of his songs. It was a way to learn about life through music.

BOOKS: I was 13. I was a complete and utter couch potato. Would come home from school and watch TV all evening. I would do homework at school so it wouldn't interfere. I started reading at a very young age and was good at it - but it was too much like school work. When I was 13, I went to a bat mitzvah and met a new friend. She introduced me to this book. This is the book that got me started back into a love of reading. It introduced to me an entirely new genre and type of writing and I voraciously read all of her books that summer. Mercedes Lackey is very good at sucking in people. I have outgrown a lot of her writing now and having read a lot more things that are more sophisticated etc, I can see the simplicity in it, and yet, I can reread Arrows of the Queen and that whole series over and over and over and never get tired of them. They are old friends. And now I've spent the last 6.5 years working part time in a bookstore and learning about all the other wonderful authors out there and continuously renewing my joy in reading. And of course, having met my husband at the store while I was working, and us having very similar bookshelves, kind of adds to the life altering joy i have discovered stemming from that one book.

MOVIE: Movies are more difficult. I'm not sure if there is a particular movie that made any drastic changes in thoughts but. . . I have to say that the one movie/series that I can watch OVER AND OVER AND OVER no matter how often is The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. I know they are light, fluffy, action movies. There isn't anything deep about these movies or anything else. But the area ALWAYS entertaining to me - and whenever i'm home sick and there is nothing else on TV - those are the movies I put in the DVD player. I wore out my first set of DVD's and had to buy new copies. :)

here's today's little bit of insight into the mind of Miss Ilanna. :)

***warning - semi gross commentary below!***

In other news - Can I call em or can I call em?! - Just heard that a certain Suka was pregnant. (she lost it.) But i TOLD you all she'd be pregnant before her sister in law gave birth. And I'll bet she's retrying as we speak. (so to speak anyway) Rumor has it that she may have an eating disorder (which could certainly explain so many miscarriages so young...) We are also speculating about a possible munchausen's type thing going on. Though truth is, the girl is just playing house as far as I'm concerned. She was visiting Auntie Em and asked Auntie Em to distract sukaspawn for a moment. At which point (and I and my mother have NEVER heard of this mind you) she used some kind of TOOL to extract the usual diaper filler from her daughter stating that she doesn't "pooh" enough. Umm huh??? I mean if the kid is constipated give her a little prune juice and you are all good. My guess is she is playing with a doll. She feeds her, and then the natural progression is to change a diaper, but she does it on a schedule not on an as needed basis and so decides something is wrong if there isn't anything there. And my guess is this only happens on the weekends, b/c Hello is there during the week. I am also willing to bet it's more often done when in 'public' to show off just how good of a mommy she is being. Ahh well - just had to get that off my chest and well.. it's new Suka story which i'm sure you all await with baited breath. :)

Let's see how long it takes for Auntie Em to have to start paying SukaStar's mortgage considering they bought a house for roughly $700K using an 80/20 mortgage. This should get interesting. (oh and before they move in in 2 weeks they want to repaint and wall paper the whole house, put in carpet and granite countertops - b/c suka says she can't kosher the ones that are there. And of course they want to use all of Auntie Em's contractors... we figure in hopes she'll end up paying for it all. but - for some odd reason... they can't seem to hire them. hmmmmm :) )

That's all for today folks :) I had a great time visiting my friends in TX. We just kind of hung out and relaxed all weekend. Got to see the bats fly out from under the bridge in austin which was neat. Haven't gone through the pics yet to see if any are workable. If I do I'll post them.

have a great weekend folks!

When are we done. . . ?

Ok - Today's rant is regarding this story on CNN, detailing how the University of Virginia has passed a referendum apologizing for the fact that the school used slave labor between 1819 and 1865.

I have REAL problems with what they University did along with the whole VA legislature that set the precedent. (and I know this isn't the only example)

Why are they still apologizing? I mean - let's do the math. It's 2007. That means it's 143 years since the last year they used slave labor. So for someone to have been one of the slaves working there, figure they started working at age 10 (probably too young but it's a number.) They would have to be 153 years old today to receive this apology. Added to that, people in charge of the school would have to be 173 years old to be here apologizing.

Why people now feel the need to apologize for something that happened a) 200 years ago and b) was the norm for the time does not make sense to me. In my mind, one should only apologize for something they had a direct hand in. (this does not count for things like when someone says they are sick and you say "i'm sorry..." that's empathizing, feeling bad that they feel bad.) These people did not themselves employ slaves and the slaves that were employed are long since dead. There are no more slaves in this country. The more people continue to apologize for something they didn't do, the more they indicate that they are at fault and give power to something that doesn't deserve power. It gives credence to the concept of "we were slaves 200 years ago, so we deserve special treatment and kid gloves now." I *HATE* that concept. You weren't a slave, you didn't suffer the pains and hardships, so why do you get the apology?

Does that make sense?

it's something that just frustrates me to no end. Where are the apologies to oh.. say the jews? We were slaves 3000 years ago. Did the apology time frame expire? Or how about the women who all throughout history had to server husbands and families with no pay or recognition or any say in their own fate, simply because they lacked a certain extremity? Have the romans apologized to the greeks and all other nations they conquered for taking them slaves?

Ya know - in Judaism on Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) people apologize and ask forgiveness. (only for things THEY have done mind you.) If person B does not forgive person a, then A can ask again. If person B denies forgiveness 3 time, then that is now THEIR sin and no longer person A's. To me - apologizing this many years after the fact, for something you were never directly involved in is a sin in and of itself, especially as the victims are not there to forgive you. . .

Just my thoughts for the day. . . .

Sensationalism I can do with out. . . .

I really hope that no one takes this post the wrong way.

The shootings/massacre/tragedy(whatever you want to call it) at VA Tech is an incident that is heart wrenching and terrible. I truly believe that and feel for everyone who is affected directly or indirectly by this horrible event.

However.

I have to say, that the media's handling of this situation is absolutely atrocious. I mean, last night I was sitting in the bar and a news update came on. "new information about the shootings revealed!" was one headline on the top of the screen. On the bottom "new information about the shooter!". In the middle of the screen - trisecting it was a picture of the man in his bullet proof vest etc holding guns out to either side like some sad parody of a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider cover or something. Did we really need to see that?

It's been 3 days since the incident and the newspapers are still headlining with the story - posting that picture and pictures of everyone grieving and so forth. Can't they let these people grieve in peace? We've gotten all of the information we needed within the first 2 days. It is all so sensationalized and it find that truly disgusting.

What also really bothers me is the concentration on the shooter - all of this information, his picture the constant stream of information about this person. They are making him into a hero for all those other disturbed folks out there. Why aren't they doing a story on mental illness in this country? Why aren't they doing a story on Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust Survivor who died saving the lives of his students. This is the man who should be high-lighted and praised for his selfless actions to save the lives of his students.

Or, how about as Cartoonist Mike Lukovich depicts here are we concentrating on 30+ deaths here in the US that are yes, absolutely TRAGIC and unexpected, and forgetting all about the issues over seas. All of the people dying and fighting a war that most people didn't want in the first place, based on lies, and that perpetuates long beyond when it should have ended. Why are we not paying any attention to those civilian casualties who die daily because they happen to live in a country of unrest?

This is what bothers me the most - the distortion of events by the media, the constant inundation of tragedy and death whenever we turn on the TV. For DAYS on end specials and stories about the incident bombarding us with tragedy and grief and sensationalizing a horrible event.

It happened. And while I feel for and grieve with the families of those students, can't we move on? Aren't there other things in this world that deserve this kind of coverage?

-----------------------------------
And now that the Rant is over. Let's move on to something a little more light hearted.

I bought an ID bracelet last night. It's stainless steel so no allergies. :) But it has this nice EMPTY bar on it - just waiting to be "written" on and i'm looking for suggestions.

I thought about my hebrew name - but they don't have hebrew letters. I could do it in english letters but just not the same. :)

Minijaxter came up with: "In case of emergency, Insert Chocolate."
I was also thinking - since 18 represents life (the word Chai in hebrew means life or 18) doing something like: 18, 36, 72, 144. . . Just keep on living.

What do you all think? (i'm willing to entertain serious and funny suggestions. . . )

I probably won't post tomorrow as I'm leaving in the afternoon for a weekend with my friend - so hope everyone has a good weekend and that you don't let current events keep you from living your own life.

Live it in celebration of those who can't. . .

Long arm of the . . . Mouse??

Ok - I know it's hard to see - but ...

I found this sticker on - My Tomato. That's right, my husband bought me a tomato so I could put it on my taco, and this is the produce sticker that was on it. My word... DISNEY produce?!

I found this utterly amusing and entertaining and thought I would share it with everyone. :)

In other news I am going to Austin, TX this weekend to visit one of my best friends whom I haven't seen in a long time. (not since she was in my wedding a year and a half ago. :) ) We have decided we needed girl time, so I have a feeling we're gonna leave her hubby behind for a lot of this weekend LOL.

Not too many new things happening. I have 4 more weeks of physical therapy, but doctor is happy with the progress of my knee. I went to the gym with Minijaxter this weekend, and my thighs are still a little sore from the Hip Aduction/abduction machine. :) But it was a good workout, and once PT is done, I think I may try to go to the gym more often. Maybe join up mini's gym and trade out my "pt" sessions for work out sessions. Will be interesting to see if I actually follow up on it.

For ALIT - remember how my mom didn't want folks willy nilly in my grandmother's house? Well they took that to heart, and didn't tell us that they were going in there also to provide maintenance for the boiler. So they stopped that, and now to the tune of $9000, the boiler seized and cracked and died. Then there was some leaks from the nor'easter this weekend into the basement which was discovered while the real estate agent was showing the house. (sigh) If it's not one thing it's another right?

Ahh well - when it rains it pours eh? (ducking the bad joke police....)

Health Care and drama... :)

So - I found out this past week how frustrating health care in this country can really be. I want to preface this whole thing by saying my insurance company has been absolutely FABULOUS in working with me. The rules though can make things difficult.

I have... an HMO - that's right - the whole primary care thing with referrals and everything else required. Well I didn't like my old doctors (we'll call them OD) b/c it was insane to get an appointment. If I had a cold or sinus infection I would get "sorry, but Dr. J doens't have any appointments until 2 weeks from now. I can fit you in with the Nurse Practitioner." Now - I have no objection to NP's. They do a wonderful job usually. Problem was this place a) overbooked her terribly and b) it sucked to wait 2 hours for a 3 minute cold impersonal visit with this particular NP. So i switched. The issue though: I have 2 specialists right now (Physical therapy and the orthopedist.) So to switch, i needed to see the new PCP on the first of the month and get all new referrals before I could see my specialists that month because the new referrals would cancel out the old, and you can't have 2 PCP's in one month. (or at least you can't visit 2 in one month.)

So I went to the dr my friend recommended. This is A. Small practice, willing to fit you in when you are sick etc. I figured great. Well small means that office manager is her husband and he does EVERYTHING - including taking you back to the rooms, answering the phones, filing etc. SO i go in to see her on 4/2. She agrees to the referrals, it's all good. Thursday 4/5 I call the PT office to see if the referral arrived. (he said it would probably be there the next day.) They said, nope no referral. So i call A. They aren't there until 1030am. So I leave an urgent message with the answering service. 11am and still no referral. The appt is at 1130. So I call back, and get a woman who says she just got there and doesn't know what's going on etc. She says the dr has been seeing patients since 8am, they just don't turn their phones on for a few hours. I argue with her a bit and tell her this is poor patient care etc, and she says "i'll try to write this up now and fax it over, what's their number?" and i'm like - umm.. I don't have it... don't you?? you were supposed to send it over 2 days ago. So she says she'll try to find it and send it over. I leave for PT. I get there, No referral. I call again and the office manager answers. he says "well you'll just have to reschedule the appointment because there isn't enough time to get a referral." At this point i'm VERY upset. the people at PT can't believe what's happening. I argue with him some more and finally say "well i guess i'm going to have to find a new doctor too because you are too much of an idiot to handle simple paperwork." - now... at this point in the regular customer service world the person should say "ma'am i really do not have to take that kind of abuse. If you calm down we can figure out this situation." it's basically a first warning to defuse the situation. is that what he did? no... he said: "well, no you've hurt my feelings. I guess you will have to find a new doctor," and then he hung up on me. One of the girls at PT said she knows this dr (goes there) and while the dr is nice, getting refills and referrals can be difficult. well - in my mind if you can't handle simple paperwork such as a referral, i don't care how good the dr is i'm not going to go there. At this point i'm crying and I leave PT b/c I can't have my appointment without the referral.

I call the insurance company and they are more than happy to get me an exception for my appt on friday so i wouldn't need the referral, and said they would back date a new primary care to beginning of the month. This means i'd have to pay A's office visit fee but i could still switch docs. So i call another dr a friend recommended. (B) They say, shouldn't be a problem call tomorrow for a fit in appointment and we'll get me squared away. So i officially switch and wait til the next day. (friday) I call friday morning and after much arguing, person checking with the doctor and the doctor refusing to help and finally the office manager coming on and saying "we can't fit you in as a new patient. You'll have to wait until mid may for a new patient visit, and oh yeah - it takes at least 7 days for a referral. 7 DAYS!!!!! they claim that they get *SO* many referrals they have to do (only 2 docs in the practice) that it takes at least a week for them to go through unless it's an emergency, and my situation didn't qualify.

There is a happy ending though after all of this stress. I call the insurance company again and explain the situation. I randomly pick a doc off their website. (C) They are in the same building as my PT. I've had good luck with the hospital centers so far (PT has been great) and so what the hell right? I call, explain the situation to the operator. She checks with each unit to see who is taking new patients. They tell me Dr. J is and switch me to that "unit." See - they have a LOT of doctors in the practice, but they are divided into units of only 2 or 3 so there's full staff for every 2 or 3 dr's. So they answer... and this is Good Friday mind you. And not only could they take me as a new patient, but they could fit me in THAT day! at 3pm. wow! So i took the appointment, made the switch and went later that day.

Night and day let me tell you. I got there early to do paperwork. I hadn't even sat back down after finishing the papers before they called me back at 3pm on the dot. The MA (medical assistant) did her own work up and went over my papers an history and then the doc came in about 10 minutes later. She did a very thorough history and exam and then they wrote up the referrals, and handed them to me to take with me as I left. See - not that hard!! :) when i talked to her office staff they were boggled. "7 days for a referral?? that's ridiculous, we ask for 3 days as a courtesy, but 7? And they *CAN'T* have more referrals to do than we do!"

I guess there's a big difference between competent office staff and an office that actually cares about their patients and their health as well as customer service and isn't just in it for the business.

In other news - ALIT progresses with the usual idiocy. Turns out that auntie em is actually cosigning on sukastar's house. Big surprise. They are going to end up SUCKING her dry and in the process cousin P gets attacked and left by the wayside. It gets more and more complicated the longer it goes on - too many details to go into. But one amusing bit...

My KAR(krazy aunt R if you don't remember) has a number of paintings by a very famous dead contemporary artist whom she represented when she was a lawyer. We'll call these Art. :) Suka has the GALL/Chutzpa/cajones to ask KAR, "would you mind terribly if I took one of your Art's to hang in the new house?? it would look so lovely and add so much color and cheer to the new house." Kar may be nuts but she ain't stupid. If Suka 'borrows' art, art will never be returned and she's just scammed a VERY valuable piece. Kar thankfully said no and then complained about it to Cousin P, but i mean - really! The GALL! :)

oh well - I think this post has been long enough. For your pitying cutesy feelings of the day. :) My poor puppy Z hurt her paw. She ripped the nail shell off her nail leaving the quick entirely exposed. So i took her to the emergency vet yesterday. (thankfully only $40 worth since the vet tech did the work and she didn't need to actually see the vet.) and they got her all wrapped up. I was worried about her chewing off the bandage so - the cone was brought out. Poor puppy - walked into walls and couldn't figure out how to fix it! :)

And the Answer is. . . . (drumroll please...)

A Wood burning Hot tub. Would you believe it??? :)

to me - it looked small - like kitchen bowl size. . . but no - it's a 5 foot wide bowl with a wood burner that heats the water as it goes through the coils and fills the tub. Weird huh?

oh... and it's only $6000. :)

wow - been a while eh?

I know it's been a while - i'm sorry. :) Haven't had much to say that i could say publicly and didn't feel like trying to organize all the garbage into intelligible form for anyone not living it. LOL

short and sweet today - a little contest of sorts - I'm looking for the best/most creative answer (but currect answer I suppose are ok too) - *NO CHEATING*!!!! :)

Identify this object: Have fun!

As promised...

Completed pictures of the bathroom

Tub - View 1













Tub View 2
You can see how
he trimmed
the floor so it
would be all even.











The domed
ceiling.
Supposedly
it keeps the
steam more
contained.










The double
showerhead.

neat huh?










And a clearer
view of the
UBERCUTE!

:) so adorable
huh?

hehe





In other news, I gave the bunny to D - and he ADORED IT! he thought it was just
the neatest thing - so I'm all excited.

That's about it new since well.. yesterday. :) Don't get used to this many posts in one week though. :)

Laters!

it's alive!! ALIIIIIIIIIVVVEEE AHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

:)

So anyway the project i've been working on is done.

see the story is - my friend B was wearing this blue panne velvet shirt at our friend D's birthday party. As drunk as he was, he was in tactile mode and couldn't stop petty B cuz the velvet felt so nice. :) So i was gonna make him one of my patented stuffed bunnies out of the velvet. But i ran into a few snags.

Unfortunately there weren't enough big pieces to cut the bunny out of the leftovers. and because it's so stretchy every time i cut it the whole thing curled in and malformed etc. So frankensteining the pieces together so wasn't going to work. So while I was at the fabric store I began looking for a replacement.

I found... what amounts to blue polyester muppet skin. :) It's very fuzzy, and fluffy but not in a matted fur feeling kind of way - it's more like "fun fur yarn" if you are familiar with that. And it's very nice to pet. very silky feeling.

So after much shaking and vacuuming of blue fur, and aggravated sewing and cutting etc. :)

it's complete.

I give you - The Great Blue non-velveteen Rabbit! :)

Which way did she go George? Which way did she go?

I know i haven't been here in a bit.

Not too much has been going on that I can really blog about unfortunately.

The ALIT stuff is really coming to a head with a true fracturing of family going on. Revisionist history, hurt feelings, lack of consideration of other people's feelings etc. Along with setups and manipulations upon the LI contingent's parts etc.

My view of the future, is SukaStar's house falling through, and them ending up living with Auntie Em, or trying to buy my Grandmother's house at a cheap price. Should be interesting to see what happens come May.

not too much else is happening right now. Bathfitters is installing my new tub/shower in the hall bathroom. The Installer is a Kick and a half. From brooklyn, and was a marine for 18 years, and the flirting was on full force. It was a lot of fun. He'll be back tomorrow to finish up.

Here's some pictures of the progress. I"ll post pics of the completion after it's done tomorrow.


Left wall and the Right wall

the lovely soaking tub.

As of when he left, the walls are no longer bare. They are now drywalled with green board. Tomorrow he will install the surround and all of the trim and the domed ceiling, along with the crescent curtain rod etc. I can't wait. I wish i had picture of the old one, i didn't think to take them. The old tub was pretty hideous. :)

I love bathfitters. And as many people don't realize, they don't just lay over top. If the old isn't in good shape, they rip out and replace rather than lay over. Plus, they bring all plumbing up to code and warranty the plumbing with their product for life. This guy, the plumbing wasn't leaking but it had started to corrode a bit, and he didn't like that. So he cut it all out and replaced it with new copper piping. And we bought 2 shower heads with a diverter. So we are going to have y pipe up there with a switch on it, and then there's a massaging shower head, and we also bought a Rain style shower head with an adjustable arm to make it up high so it can work the right way. :) this is gonna be an awesome shower. LOL

The last thing i'm really working on right now is a present for a friend. It's gonna be funny - but it's a pain in the A$$ right now to make, so when it's done i'll post pictures of it too. :)

Your Cuteness factor for the day:



Oh well time to get ready for PT.

Silly? me? no.... you must be mistaken - NA na na na naaaa na. :P

So apparently I'm in a silly mood today. No idea why - just feeling a whee little bit silly.

hum de hum de hum.... :)

So... silly SukaStar story... :)

Auntie Em was telling them a story because apparently Sukaspawn is starting to get her first tooth. (she was born august 5th, this seems a bit delayed to me but what do i know.) Anyways - she's tell them this story about Star's grandmother and how the tradition went, that everytime the baby got a new tooth, you were supposed to buy the mother a new pair of shoes. well, that's a loaded gun right there.

My mom remembers the tradition a little differently. She remembers "when the baby gets their FIRST tooth, you buy the BABY their first pair of shoes." That seems to make a lot more sense, since by the time of their first tooth, they are probably starting to experiment with crawling and standing maybe (depending on development.) it just indicates another milestone.

So Star takes Suka out to look at shoes, and she picks a pair. Anyone want to guess what designer she picked? I"ll give you a hint: The Devil is near by... :)


Yup - She picked out an inexpensive pair of Prada's. (only $350.) To which - my cousin showed a little bit of improvement and said "umm no, what are you smoking?" I'm told she picked another pair from nordstroms, another designer but we're not sure who. But we're guessing still over $100. :) Now - I am willing to pay over $100 for a pair of shoes. But there are certain criteria. A) i'm willing to pay for certain brands. Namely dansko primarily. Because it is an orthotically designed shoe, that i will generally wear quite a bit. they are worth the money for the most part. b) A good sturdy pair of boots or C) a well built designed dress shoe that is COMFORTABLE and that I will get a lot of use out of. But it's rare that i'm willing to spend that much.

I mean honestly - can someone please tell me what makes a pair of Prada's or Manolo's worth a few hundred dollars??? I have yet to understand that myself.


Anyway, i find that whole story very entertaining. She's now gonna get a lot of shoes that she probably doesn't need. :)

There's other stuff going on, but I may save that for the other location. I"ll let you know if i post there any time soon.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Who knew?

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 96%

You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

So who knew that i'm rooting for the bad guys? Certainly *I* didn't. This is a very amusing and yet sobering quiz. It's all tongue in cheek but does let you know just how stupid the rhetoric out there really is. Of course the % in this test came from answering questions like, Do you think wire tapping without a warrant is ok?

For a much more thought provoking (and less darkly humorous) post, check out Edi-Tori-als today. She wrote an interesting post about how our wounded and soldiers are treated upon their return from a battle we shouldn't be fighting in the first place.

In other news:

The doc has declared it's time for me to go to physical therapy. So after dealing with allt he various insurance things (friggin' HMO) i'm scheduled to start sometime next week. I also had my very FIRST morning session with the personal trainer. :) Strangely it was not exhausting. i won't say yet that it was invigorating, but we'll give it a little more time. :)

On the ALIT side of things - Star (of SukaStar) is trying to stir the sh*t and got Kar to call basically call my mom and start in on her about things. During a discussion of my mom wanting Legacies for her children from their grandparents (physical ones), she stated to Kar that we would like to have something physical and not just our memories. To which Kar responded "well you just may have to live with only your memories." To which my mother says "excuse me?" and she goes "well if we decide you can't have anything then it's 2 to 1 and you can't do anything about it."

I think war is being declared. My mother who has tried to remain peaceable and fair minded through out this entire ordeal, is fed up. (btw, it will be one year on march 9th) It will be interesting to see how things progress from here. Stay tuned...

"That's some bad hat Harry..."

So - who can name the movie that quote is from? It's a very subtle line... :) Most people probably know it as the line said during the credits of HOUSE on fox.

Anyways - so i have pictures now of the infamous chemo cap i was working on . It's furry. :) I'm posting them here so everyone can see the silly hat. The first pictures is the hat just on top of a water bottle. The second is on my head. IT's a little tight for me - but not bad. Which is fine - because it' snot for me - it's for children's hospital. (I have a small head anyway)

So without further ado: THE HAT! (talk about Hat Hair... my word... (evil grin) )

Too Hip to be square...

Or not to be honest. :)

Just thought I'd post pictures of the squares I did for the blanket Rebeka is making.















The green one has a "chai" done in hebrew knitted into it. Chai means Life and I thought that would be a neat and appropriate pattern. The second one is just a heart put into the square. I find it amazing that the pattern shows up better on a crappy 1mp camera phone than it does in real life. :) Both are lovely though. (I think.) The green one is 100% wool, and the pink/peach one is 55% wool, 22% nylon, and the rest is cotton I believe. REALLLLY soft. :) I tell ya, joanns is coming out with some nice yarns of their own.

Right now I'm working on a chemo cap. I'm making it with a fun fur type yarn and Bernat satin worsted weight held together. It will be a thick cap - but will kind of look "hair" which is the idea. I've got about 4" done, just another 2 or so, and then i can start the decreases. I'm hoping it's big enough to fit someone's head. Most likely a child's - but it's my first attempt with a hat. So we'll see how it comes out. :)

And that's about it from this end. Getting a lot of knitting done (at least for me.) I guess part of it is I don't want to get too sucked into any books right now, since I'm waiting for one on Tuesday. (a week from today.) Course, that didn't stop me from buying 4 or 5 books this weekend anyway. LOL

Enjoy your days all... :)

I'm such a geek... :)

It's true. It really is.

It's not that I fix and play with computers. Though I do do that, computers aren't really new and interesting anymore. Heck i bought a new one 2 weeks ago and I still haven't hooked the bugger up. :) cuz i'm feeling too lazy to untangle all the cables. I guess i'll have to do it this weekend if i ever want to print things again. :)

It's the gadgetness that makes me a geek. I can look at all kinds of things - and it could be a gadget that does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and I will ooh and ahh and look at the pretty lights. Give me a kitchen gadget and i'm in absolute heaven. :)

Heck - I can admit it, I want a spinning wheel because it's using a Gadget to make stuff. Just because I can admit the desire, does NOT mean I don't want it any more. It's a nifty gadget. I like gadgets. :)

However, I think the following is really the ultimate in geekiness. I mean there's the geek level that says, "ooh that's a great idea, i dont' need it but i want it" factor. There's the "ooh, i wonder how they got that to do that factor." And then, there's this.

This is Andes Yarn. It's 100% wool. It's not something I would normally choose to knit with. it's also $9.50 a hank. That's expensive if you want to actually make something substantial with it because I think it's only about 150 yards of yarn for that $9.50. It's not super soft and pettable either (like the hank of baby alpaca i bought for $13.50 - a whopping 110 yards, but i had to buy because it was SOOOO soft.)

No. I bought this because of the colors. YOu see how the hank is died? Like they wound it and then just dipped sections of it in the dye? Kind of like tie dying a tshirt. I bought this yarn because i *HAD* to see how it balled up. I needed to see what would happen when you put it into ball form, and see what order the colors come in. I'll probably eventually knit a square or some such out of it, if only to see how it all works up. That is the ONLY reason I bought this. I needed to see what would happen. :) How sad is that?

Now, as Minijaxter said, over at the Knit Knack blog, they are working to create a blanket of hope for someone with lymphoma. I think this is a great idea. I am more than happy to work on making a piece of this blanket. The kicker is, there is a slightly selfish desire to do this as well. :) It means that I can justify buying some yarn i'd NEVER normally buy myself. And then get to try it out with out bankrupting myself. You see - for me, and for babies etc, I always knit with acrylic type yarns. Why? Because they are easy care machine washable and won't felt. :) They are also CHEAP! Like $1.99 for 200 yards. Much more affordable for the hobby and there's some really nice soft ones out there so it's great. *BUT* it does not mean that on occasion i can't try something new right? But as stated before at $9.50 or more a hank, when you need 5-10 hanks to make something, that's a LOT of money. :) SO buy knitting a square or two for the blanket of hope, that lets me justify buying a few different yarns to play with that I would normally NEVER buy for myself to use. ANd since 1 square won't even use UP an entire hank, I only need to buy one, and $9.50 then seems MUCH more affordable. :)

So - I'm a geek. A tactile geek, but a geek none the less. Soon as I ball that yarn this weekend by the way, I will take another picture to show you how it balls up, and then once I knit it - i'll take a picture of the swatch so you can see how it knits too. Just cuz, i know you are ALL as curious as I am. LOL!

have a great weekend!

cuteness factor

Inspired by mary... :)

aren't they just SOOOO cute? :) lol

it's really a shame they don't know how to get comfortable.









This btw - is the new project i've started. The theory is that i'll make 12 or 15 of these (once completed as a 12x12 square) and make a blanket out of them. Of course, that's only the theory. Then again, as my friend always says "I want to move to theory, everything works in theory." :)



Not a whole lot else is going on here. Just thought i'd share the picture. I would have tried to take it with a better camera than my phone, but my brother borrowed it last weekend, and wanted it for this weekend too, so has not yet returned it. Oh well. :)

Enjoy!

last night's game... :)

Well. I'm not a big football fan. In fact the superbowl is probably the only game I watch every year. I usually don't even make it through that. But last night - i saw the WHOOOOOLLLE thing. :)

First I want to say, the national anthem by Billy Joel. *THAT* is what a national anthem should be. Simple, traditional, and true to form. No musical exposition, variation or anything else. Just a nice traditionally sung national anthem. I was happy and pleased. (reminds me that I miss BIlly Joel, and will have to make sure I find some of my CD's and make them into Mp3's, or hit the itunes store and load up. :)

The game was very entertaining. For a while I was rooting for the bears. (sadly the only reason for that was that Condi apparently likes the colts, and at that point i figured why not root for her opposite. I had no other team loyalty.) :) During the last quarter though I was rooting for no one. By 12 minutes left in the last quarter, I was saying "ok - no one is allowed to score now." That's because the score reflected my square in the football pool. :) I never win these things so I wanted to win this one. :) Well they listened to me and i won!!! yay!!! :) that's my spending money for the week. :)

It also helps that I was at a very fun party, and seated in a very comfy couch and was NOT giving up my seat. :) At one point I took out my knitting and my seat mate goes "are you that bored?" And i said no, it's really more to a) keep my hands busy and b) keep me from over eating. I only knit 1 or two rows and I think I messed something up because it just doesn't look right, but i'm not particularly worried. IT's a rinky dink little thing. (i'm trying to make a cupcake like minijaxter made for me.) It's so I can try out double pointed needles (DPN's) and see what they are all about and if i could deal with knitting a project on them. I probably could ifi really wanted to, but not so sure I really want to LOL. :)

that's about all for this weekend. HOpe my party hosts enjoy the left over food. (we brought about 5 lbs of meatballs and 2.5 slabs of ribs. Hubby wanted to learn how to make them.) Hope everyone else enjoyed the game as well. :) (and their weekend.)

32 years and counting...

Well, i'm now 32 years old. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes - i really do appreciate them.

As Minijaxter said, it was a great party. A lot of my friends came and celebrated with me. The little kids were using the hall way as a slide - they'd run and then slide the rest of the way on their knees. Ahh the joys of "hardwood" floors. :) Lots of screaming early on.

Got to meet my friend's new baby Kara. at a month old, she wasn't very participatory in the evening's festivities, but that's ok. :) The food was absolutely wonderful and went over very well. There wasn't a whole lot of leftovers afterwards. Just extra "toppings" a bit of taco meat and the rice which not too many people had. And the cake? OH MY GOD the cake was fabulous and lasted all of 30 seconds I think.

I got some wonderful gifts and gift cards to favorite stores. My hubby got me some great stuff from LL bean. (love their men's shirts and the jeans. ) mom got me some great earrings with variable topaz.

All in all, i had a really good time and i'm so glad all my friends could join me. Of course, one thing i was really excited about (silly but it's SO me) was the new crock pot mom bought me for the party. I wanted something we could keep the meat warm in, but my 6qt crock pot, supposedly programmable, only has 4, 6, 8, and 10 hour settings. To get it to "warm" mode you have to let it finish a timed cycle first - all of which would have been too hot to keep the meat warm. It's been bugging me for a while, and i've been wanting a new one. So I went to LnT. On line i found this great one that i really liked, but it was backordered and out of stock. They were out in the store too. But I didn't want to spend $30 on a cheap one, cuz then how do I justify getting the one I want when it's back in stock you know? :) So i convinced the manager to let me buy the display model. :) And I actually got compliments on it from some of the guests at the party. It's a really nice crock pot.

Anyways - i was going to post earlier in the week, but monday I didn't get a chance and well, tuesday, i got hit with a tummy bug of some kind and was not in a very verbal frame of mind. I'm doing a bit better today so you get an update. :)

BTW, for those in the know, there is a new update at the invite only blog. :) ilannaprivate dot blogspot dot com. :) enjoy!