The Cubs have lost their first two pre-season games. So the perfect season will not be.
Note to Albert Puljols: you turned down a 10 year $200 million contract. Let me give you a reality check - no one on the planet is worth $200 million. Considering that you will be 41 - way old in baseball years - that's not a deal you turn down. With workers demonstrating in Milwaukee, you don't turn down the amount of money that would pay them all for several years. 
You get $16 million a year now - you should play one year for free.
Here's the other granny square hat. Poor little Styrofoam head can't handle the rasta. It took a lot to try and keep her upright when the cap was on her head. I need one of those heads that have hair. I've said that before. I say it again because I still don't have one.
At our Wednesday get together and the one we had this Sunday the wonderful Melissa and the endearing Chantal had some orange Sugar N Cream Cotton which I just fell in love with. Chantal would not even think about letting me have it - I asked - and I knew better than to ask Melissa. This morning when Mr. Honey took me out to breakfast I asked him to drive me over to Micheal's so I could get some of the goodness for myself. Now I have three balls of it along with two of a nice blue I didn't know they had.
But these are the small skeins so I am wondering how many scrubbies I will be able to get out of them but I am filled with happiness that I have them and I know where to find them if I should want them again. I was so tempted to buy the self striping cotton yarn but saved that for a later time. (This is why we have husbands...)
I believe I will be finished with my special order hat today - the gnome hat inspired by Glee. I made one last night that turned out more skull cap but it's really cute and it serves as a nice cap - especially with the flower I put on it. I am writing up the pattern and I will take a photo a little later. I want to finish the other cap first and write that pattern and do a two-fer.
Tomorrow is the kid's birthday. Mr. Honey mentioned it at breakfast today. 33. Where does the time go?
Happy birthday to my sister, Carole....I got involved with a lot of stuff because of my sister: I did theatre (not the theater - those are movies. I haven't done a movie - though I did do a commercial)because of my sister. I took French in high school because of my sister.I didn't think boys were yucky because of my sister...OK, that part's not true - I never thought boys were yucky.
My sister is a world traveler and an educator and still manages to be fun. She is one of my rocks - keeping me grounded and one of my pillars - encouraging me to reach. I still feel like a baby sister when I'm around her and that's not a bad thing. There are worse things in the world than being a baby sister - like being a baby sister without a big sister like her.
I can so thoroughly explain why the square afghan is not going to be made for the family Christmas on the 22nd...
Now before you start on me about not being focused or lazy or any of those other things I want to state emphatically that it was not either one of those.
As you may recall, I said there were other things that also needed to get done and I wanted to make sure there was enough time to get those things done as well. After thinking about it, I decided I needed to at least get started on those things so there would not be this mad last minute rush. Besides, there are now a dozen squares so it's not like I'm a slacker. I've been working on this:
I think this would make a gorgeous gift for the mother of the bride/groom for a wedding or for a new mother. It's kind of easy to get lost in the pattern and I have a couple of times. That's two days worth of work that I may have to frog and start all over because I'm bothered by the rows where the count was off. It is so true that lace work is best done with the t and v off. I will have to work on this without the visual distraction. But here's the good thing; it took two days to get this done, the redo will be much shorter, I will probably be able to get this amount done - correctly - in half the time because I am more familiar with the pattern. Some good will come out of it. The time is not wasted, it was used in study.
So you can see why working on this might delay the squares? But wait, there's more:
I've completed these:
don't tell me you don't think these are cute. I know cute when i see it and these definitely are. I did one of the numbers with intarsia and one with duplicate stitch to see which one was easier - duplicate stitch won out though I was a little rusty on the technique but i still like the results.
See? I wasn't being a slacker and I am still working on the squares (there are even two sewn together and two more on the blocking boards) but I needed a bit of a distraction - you know how that goes when you're working on a long project. You need to turn your head just a little so when you train your vision back on the object, it's with a new focus. How about that for spin?
I'm going to delay the Top Ten list for one day because today is my mother's birthday. She would have been seventy-nine years old. The one thing I miss most in the world is having a parent. Both of mine are gone and I'm sure I would give a lot to have one of them here.
My mom and I spoke every week - every Monday to be exact. Even if we spoke at different times during the week, Monday at 10:00am was a fixture from the time they moved to Phoenix to the night before she passed.
Did I ever tell you the story? Mr. Honey and I were newly engaged when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April. The doctors told her she probably had about six months to live. Which meant she might not make it to her birthday - and she definitely would not make it to our wedding which was set for May of the next year.
My mother, very calmly, informed her doctors that she had a daughter who was to be married next May and did they have any idea how long she'd been waiting for that? She would not be missing that wedding day.
Mr. Honey and I offered to move up the wedding day and even offered to have it in Phoenix. She said no - keep the date, keep the place. We told her we would provide whatever she needed medically - special chairs, nurse, whatever.
She said there would be no need. She would be fine.
The six months passed..then the seventh and the eighth. The doctors did a routine scan to check the progress of the cancer...
It was gone.
They redid the scan.
Gone.
I made her send me a copy of the report so I could read it for myself. It said they could see no evidence of the cancer. That was in December.
She walked into my wedding under her own strength and you had to look really hard to see that she had been sick. She didn't even lose her hair with the chemo. She kept her promise.
She started feeling ill that winter and another scan showed the cancer had come back and spread through her body. I spoke with her on a Sunday night and she sounded just fine she said she knew this was going to end her life but she thought she had a long time to go. I didn't. But I didn't want to share that instinct with her. If she thought she had a long time, she had already proved the doctors wrong. I told her I would call her tomorrow for our regular chat.
The next day, a little before ten, I reached for the phone and something told me I didn't need to call cause no one was home. So I didn't call. When I got home that evening, Mr. Honey told me my father had called me. I called back and he told me 'Mom was gone." Talking to my brother, Mom collapsed a little before ten.
Mom and I talked about her service. She planned the service. She and my niece went to the cemetery and picked out the spot she wanted. She took care of most of the details and paid for everything (she even got a discount for my father's eventual service.) We talked about what she wanted to wear. She picked out everything but the scripture and songs - she let us do something!
During her service, her pastor turned to me and said. "She stayed for you. She wanted to be at your wedding." She never asked to be cured - though she would have taken it, I'm sure. But she told me she wasn't worried about me any more. (She loved her some Mr. Honey and he loved her.)
My Mom taught me a lot of things. My best and my worst lessons came from her, but I can honestly say she was a great Mom. She developed a sense of humor that I don't remember her having when I was younger. She was loyal to her family and faithful to God and the best thing she ever said to me was that she raised three of her best friends. (There were five of us - three daughters - sorry, boys.) How cool is that - to have your Mom think of you as a best friend?
Happy birthday, Mommy.
I miss you so much.
Today is Mr. Honey's birthday! He is 63 years old. Yep, he's waaaayyyyy older than me.
I was thinking about dropping in his high school picture, but I still think I can get more with the inheritance than with the divorce settlement.
And he's nowhere to be seen.
He should be, at this moment, in Wisconsin. His mom had two siblings remaining and Uncle Louis passed away a few days ago and he and his brother and sister-in-law went up this morning for the service. Why didn't I go? Because this evening is our niece's wedding rehearsal (Mr. Honey's sister's youngest child) and I am singing. I needed to stay here just in case traffic coming back from Wisconsin keeps them from getting back in time for the rehearsal. So we have that strange convergence of events: celebrating a life given, a life being started and an eternal life begun.
Time. It just goes on. And our existence in time means we will come to crossroads such as these where we feel different, opposing feelings and thoughts at the same time.
Isn't it fantastic?
Mr. Honey left at 4:30 this morning and I made sure I was up so I could be the first to wish him a happy birthday and to make sure he got off OK - even though he's only about five hours away, we both agreed last night how much we hate being apart. You know what he said? "When you're not there it's like; where am I?"
You gotta wish a guy like that happy birthday at the earliest possible time, don't you?
He's decided he wants to have his birthday dinner downtown in the big city next Thursday at Miller's Pub. It's a great place. It's one of those old school kind of places with the swivel chairs and round tables in a dark wood room. Our nephew works (or worked) there but we aren't going there to give him a hard time - that would just be a bonus if he's working there that day. We're gonna take the train down and walk a few blocks. It will be fun and romantic.
THIS JUST IN: THERE'S A BIRD IN THE HOUSE
I heard a noise and there it was flying around the house. I went to open the door to let it out and I don't know where it is.
Man they stink.
And Mr. Honey is in Wisconsin.
Yeah, happy birthday...
I'll be back
The Cubs have lost their first two pre-season games. So the perfect season will not be.
You get $16 million a year now - you should play one year for free.
