Knitting and the Fake Baby

While on my friend Schmath's blog last night, I burst into uncontrollable laughter. She had posted a photo of her new baby daughter sleeping on the closet shelf. She admitted to having posed the photo, but that didn't detract from the humor at all. 

On the shelf of my closet I have a newborn sized baby doll that I use when I knit or crochet baby clothes for gifts. When my first granddaughter was born, I bought an identical replica of the baby doll and made two layettes. I dressed the baby in one layette and wrapped her in the matching blanket and laid her gently in the bottom of the box. Then I put down several layers of tissue and the next blanket, followed by more tissue and the next pieces of the layette, each wrapped in thin layers of tissue paper.

My son Benjamin, youngest of our three sons, told me at the time that when his wife Ruth got to the bottom and pulled that realistic appearing baby doll out of the box, he wished I could have seen the look of shock on her face before she realized it was just a doll.

I hadn't thought about that in over two years, but when I saw the photo on Schmath's blog, I just had to share this, with a couple of photos of my "baby model."

How Did You Find Me?

One of the most interesting aspects of writing a blog, for me at least, is to see where my visitors come from. I wasn't always able to tell, but a few months ago I installed the MapLoco Visitor Map. I find myself looking in a couple times a day to see where my visitors came from. I've been really surprised. 

I seem to have a fairly regular reader in Brazil. I watch the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) and see how good the Brazilian riders do, and wonder if my reader in Brazil is watching as well, cheering on their country's riders. Did they watch when Helio Castroneves, the Brazilian NASCAR champion won the title on Dancing With the Stars? 

I've had visitors from Spain and Canada quite frequently. I wonder if it's the same people revisiting, or just a coincidence that they're from the same countries. Canada is special to me because I lived in Churchill, Canada as a small kid, and we also travelled and camped extensively throughout Canada. 

Spain has a special connection for me because of a wonderful friend from high school who was a foreign exchange student. Of course, that was back in the sixties, and her name refuses to surface right now. I'll think of it in a day or two and add it to the comments. (ABS—Absent Brain Syndrome)

Some of the other interesting countries that have shown up on my visitors map were Russia, India, the Netherlands, Finland, and Norway. I wish they would all leave me comments. I'd love to know who these people are and how they found me. Blogs actually make the world seem smaller and more neighborly. I really love that.

Television Incompatibility

How many television stations do we really need? If you ask John, he'd tell you that he can't live without the NASA channel, the Military channel, or the Western channel. I could. It's alright, though. I have an iPod with really good headphones. He also would have trouble living without whatever stations carry Numbers, Bones, and House. We also depend on Fox News and the Weather Channel.

Me? When I'm working on knitting, I like to have the Game Show Network running in the background. I can ignore it during difficult stitch counting or pattern-following areas without missing anything, but enjoy answering the questions when I'm just doing straight work. If I'm wanting to be entertained, I tend to gravitate toward the Food Network or Discovery channels. I also enjoy the singing and dancing shows, where I can argue with the choices made by the judges. Yes, I watch American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. I even vote, although that's difficult. 

Why is it difficult for me to vote? We have Voice Over IP. That means our phone isn't a typical land line. It goes through the computer's internet router. Since we had our California phone number for over 30 years, we kept that and added a Colorado number to it. Both numbers ring at the same typical telephone. You can't tell the difference if you're in the house. It acts like a normal phone. When we call out, however, it always looks like we're calling from California, since AT&T refuse to let us reverse the order of our numbers, making the Colorado number primary. None of their competitors will let us have two numbers yet—we checked—so we're stuck with this. So if I vote, I have to wait for California's show to end. They start two hours later than we do, since we get Central Time TV programming, even though we're really in the Mountain Time Zone. 

Here's why it all works for us. John and I both get up between five and six in the morning. That's where the similarity to our sleeping pattern ends. He goes to bed about seven at night. I follow him about four or five hours later. If I lie down more than six hours at a time, my back tends to go into spasm. It can hurt for a long time. I'm not fond of pain medication—or pain, for that matter. I've worked a system where I sleep about five or six hours at night, and take a couple of hours to nap in the afternoon, usually between one and four o'clock somewhere. I lie down and listen to an audiobook until I fall asleep. Sometimes it takes awhile, but not usually. Then I'm ready for the night.

John spends the mornings in his radio room,  has the afternoon for his shoot 'em ups, and after dinner he heads off to bed pretty quickly. That's when I can indulge myself in reality TV if I want to. I thought Top Chef ended nicely. 

A Knitted Sweater Vest for Mom

It's been awhile since I knitted anything with cables. Making this sweater vest for my mom was slightly challenging, but mostly a joy, since I knew she was excited about getting it. Unfortunately, when I finished the front, delighted to have finally finished the basic sweater so I could start on the detail work, which would take me another few days, I noticed that I had twisted one of the cables down near the bottom of the sweater.

It's worse than it sounds. This sweater vest is knitted from the bottom up. Redoing the front would take about a week. I set it aside and went to bed. Some time during the night I woke up, remembering what happens when you drop a stitch and don't catch it in time. The whole thing unravels. It can unravel all the way down a sweater. I got up and looked at the offending garment. The problem was about 190 rows down. The cables twisted every six rows. I went back to bed.

The next morning I looked at it again, then called John over. He was pleased to see that it was off the needles. I laid it out flat and asked if he saw anything strange. He looked about fifteen seconds, then pointed right to the mistake. He tried to convince me that it would just give the sweater "character." I knew it would be the only thing I saw whenever Mom wore it, though. Knowing Mom, she'd be sure to wear it when I was around, just so I'd know my efforts were appreciated. She's like that.

Knowing what I risked if it didn't work (having to redo the entire front) I still decided to try repairing just the cable. I put the other stitches on holders and used a crochet hook to pick out the cable stitches down to the problem area. I didn't cry, but I felt like it. I never did a repair job like that before, and I wasn't at all sure it was going to be successful. 

I figured I'd better take a photo before I started to work on it. I'm not quite sure why, but now that my plan worked, I'm glad I did. I also hope I never have to do such a thing again. It took a day and a half of squeezing the needles and cable hook into the tiny gap and making sure the yarn tension was perfect for each stitch so that it came out evenly on each row. Also, it was great fun constantly having to twist that sweater back and forth, counting to six and double-checking that I was making the cables right each time. I  actually got about a third of the way up when I realized I had started one row off, and the cables didn't quite match the ones on the other side, so I unraveled and began over. Why not?

So now that it's done, I'm satisfied. Do you suppose it was worth it? To me it was. I'm not sure how much Mom would have cared. I'll wash and dry it, since it's a little wrinkled from being crumpled in my lap during the crafting process, but I should get it in the mail this week. I don't think I'll tell her it's done, either. Surprise! I'm hardly ever glad she doesn't have a computer.

Ben and Ruth in Holland

Ben and Ruth made it safely to Amsterdam last night with our grandchildren. They flew all night, crossing however many time zones necessary, and landed safely this morning. I got a quick text message saying they were in their house, the heat was on, and they were going to take a nap. He also said they might have Voice Over IP phones by tomorrow.

That all sounds easy enough, but there were some concerns about them actually being allowed in the country at all. They'll probably blog about it once they're back online, but from what I understand, there are three ways to get into the country. You can have a visa, a work card, or a return ticket. They didn't have any of those things. Since Ben's being transferred, the visa and work card will be granted once he's there. You have to be be in the country to get them, and the paperwork is underway already. Since they'll be there for approximately three years, the return ticket would be a bad idea, so they flew one-way at company expense.

Add to these potential problems the fact that the person who was supposed to meet them with their house key has been out of the country for a week or so and they hadn't been able to contact her before boarding the plane. So if they did get into the country, they weren't sure if they could get into their house. If they did get into the house, though, they faced another possible situation.

You can't get a bank account over there until you have an in-country source of income. His job over there starts March 1st. His first paycheck will come after that. Then he can get a bank account. You can't turn on your utilities with cash or an out of country check. It has to be a check drawn on a local bank. Consequently, they weren't sure if they were going to have heat for the first couple of weeks.

Finding out last night just how many things could go wrong for them, I did what I always do when I wish I could take problems away from my kids. I pray. I get stomach cramps. I spend a sleepless night running back and forth to the bathroom and eventually remember to take Immodium. I was sure happy to get that text message this morning.

Which Way Did They Go?

For this entire week, I haven't seen a single deer on our property. This happens a few times a year, and I always wonder where they go when they're not here. Also, why do all of them disappear at the same time? They don't thin out gradually. One day they're here, and the next, they're not. Just last week, there were a couple dozen deer running around here—grazing, looking contented and happy. They would munch and watch me watching them. Do you suppose they get together and have conversations?

"Hey, Bambi, let's go see what they're growing on the other side of the hill."

"Gee, Faline, we were there a couple of months ago, and it wasn't nearly as nice as this. Remember? And it was a long walk back. You complained all the way."

"Well, I want to go, anyway. We never go anywhere anymore."

"I suppose you're going to keep at me until I agree, huh?"

"See, you're getting smarter every year."

"Well, let's see if we can get the whole herd to go along. Maybe the house people will put out some new salt licks while we're gone."

No, I don't suppose they talk. There are probably very good reasons why they disappear for a couple of weeks once in awhile. I just wish they'd leave a note or something, so I'd know when they're coming back. I miss them.

He Makes My Life Easier

Too many accidents have led to arthritis and constant back pain. Some of the everyday tasks in the kitchen tend to aggravate the muscles of the back, and can have consequences that last hours, if not days. One of the most annoying of these is sautéing ground beef. There's something in the motion that feels like it's ripping me apart by the time I'm done.

For most of our married life, I did anything I could to avoid cooking anything that used cooked ground beef. We didn't have spaghetti as often as my family would have liked, even though it was one of my better recipes. If you think about it, if you cut out the cooked ground meat, there go your tacos, burritos, taco salads, chili, and more than a score of other tasty and inexpensive meals.

Just before John retired, I had so many "helpful" friends tell me I wouldn't like what I was going to get. They said I'd have half the money and twice the man, including whatever problems we had together. Well, the half the money would be true if we still lived in California, but since we paid off all our bills before moving to the more affordable State of Colorado, our money goes further than what we were getting while he was working. As for having twice as much of him, that's been a blessing. Yes, I'm gradually working my way back to the ground beef.

One of the ways he makes my life easier is to take that job away from me. We buy ground beef from our local Sams Club. I get about six pounds at a time, and he puts it in our biggest skillet. He sautés it so beautifully that every grain is separate and equal. It's almost democratic. It's perfectly seasoned with salt and a little onion powder. Once it's drained and cooled, I waltz in and use the vacuum sealer he bought me. I separate it into airtight single meal bags, labeled and dated, and stick them in the freezer. When I want to make something using ground beef, I just pull one out of the freezer.

If you asked John, I'll bet he'd say it was no big deal. He figures he's just making a contribution to my feeding him. Actually, though, I know that he never complains, no matter what I serve. He does it for me. And you know what? It's just one of many things he says and does to make me forever grateful that he's home with me, and not still having to head out to work every day. If you're facing retirement, don't fear the "half the money, twice the husband" scenario. It just might turn out to be full of blessings and surprises.