The Sock Parade

See the above house socks? They are going to be mailed to Blaine's mother, Mary. And why, you ask, would I be doing this? It is because I finally gave up. She wore me down and I finally caved. (The above socks are my "Mardi Gras Socks" and my Opal tiger socks--and you can enlarge all the pictures by clicking on them.)

Anyhoo, it all has to do with my stupidity of knitting Mary a pair of house socks about a year and a half ago. I try to make one family member a knitted present every year. But giving Mary a pair of my socks created a monster. She began bugging me to knit her some more socks. But whenever she would bug me to knit her some more, I told her that I have a lot more family members (on both sides of the family) that I haven't knitted anything for and they were my priority for awhile. And furthermore, I told her I am currently working on my uncle's sweater right now and that it could be a long time till I finish it.

But none of this stopped her. She kept asking for more socks. Day in and day out. Every Christmas she asked---and every Thanksgiving, every Fourth of July, her birthday, St. Patrick's Day, President's Day, Cinco de Mayo and every family occasion at one of Blaine's family members' house. What was really maddening was that she also asked every time she called on the phone with myself or Blaine every weekend....

I was starting to go nutsy cuckoo.....

And then I had an epiphany.

Remember all those house socks I knitted last year? I only knitted them to see if I could play with color and stitch types. But I never wore them because they can get snagged on a nail on the metal joins between the dining room and the kitchen, and also the join between the hall and the downstairs bathroom. (This house is eons old.) So I just let the socks sit, fallow, in the knitting room.

And my epiphany was that I could give THOSE socks to Mary (she wants house socks instead of street socks.) The socks were knit for my size---and Mary has my size. So I told her on the phone that I would give them to her if she didn't mind that I never knit matching socks or sleeves. I told her that none of the socks were exactly like their mate. She said she didn't care. So Blaine told me he'll pick up a box to mail them when he's on his way home from work.

Below is a pair of "circus socks" and some camouflage socks I'm going to give her.

Then above is some "Leopardies" socks and some aran socks, each aran sock made with a different pattern. And then, of course, the Mardi Gras socks and some Opal tiger socks at the top of this post.

And ya know what I'm going to do? The box I mail the socks in will contain a nice note with a P.S. And the P.S. shall read:

"That's 6 pairs of socks, Mary. Now you're good for six years...."

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Prayers Needed

I am praying very hard for New Zealand, due to the earthquake.

And yes, I know there is heartache, hardships, and even war (civil and otherwise) in other countries right now--- and my heart goes out to the innocents there, too. Each night as I watch the news about it I get tears in my eyes--and I pray for those victims too.

Heck, I think I'll pray for the whole world---and I'm not trying to be funny here. I really mean it. Having lived overseas until I came back to America for college, I have developed a deep love for all of those in other countries and their cultures.

Please God, help us all.....

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If I'd Had The Nerve, I'd Have Drawn a Clowny-Face on Blaine With Lipstick Or Something....

First of all, don't think that just because they look totally innocent while sleeping that they actually ARE innocent. Don't believe it for a minute.

And secondly, as you can see how Leonard sleeps diagonally on the floral print pillow, which is mine, I end up getting pushed out of bed. It happens every time I get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water or something---everybody adjusts and there's no room for poor Bo. Worse yet, sometimes Blaine absconds to his side of the bed with an iron grip on my snuggle pillow....

And thirdly, at the top right of the picture you can see my poor tattered snuggle pillow---you can barely see some of the stuffer pillow sticking out at the top of it. And it's lost all it's corner tassles but one.

I knitted this snuggle pillow in 2001 and I've gotten so attached to it that I've repaired it umpteen damn times. I can't sleep without it.

And with regular repairs, hopefully I'll keep using it till I'm 92 and old enough to wear purple and a red hat....

Those idgits never even woke up when I took that stupid picture. Blaine would probably murder me if he knew I'd put it on the blog. But he never reads my blog, thank God.

Heh Heh Heh.....

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A Down Period....

Hello, I know I've been awful quiet lately but I've had some issues I've had to deal with. But I won't be gone long---I'm trying to dig out now. (Oh, I used that expression about the heavy snows: "to dig out", heh.) So perhaps you could call what I'm digging out of as "emotional snow".

Anyway, as The Terminator said: "I'll be back."

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Men......sigh....

The above is what happens when your husband doesn't check the legs of his sweatpants for stray socks when he does the laundry---especially wool socks that I had knitted for him.....

The question I planned on asking him was: WHY DON'T YOU CHECK FOR LOST SOCKS IN SWEATPANTS WHEN YOU'RE DOING THE DANG LAUNDRY?????

Okay, I know and appreciate the fact that I have a gem of a husband because he does all the laundry. But what happened was that I was picking up clothes off the floor by his side of the bed. And I noticed there was only one of his favorite house socks---the ones I knitted for him to wear with his house slippers in the mornings when he gets out of bed---a pair of socks which he had asked for. He loved them. And when I called downstairs to ask where the lost sock was, there was a long pause.....and then he sheepishly said: "I.... uh.... accidentally washed it. It was in one of the legs of my sweatpants."

When I took a deep breath in order to have enough breath to say WHAT!? YOU PUT A WOOL SOCK IN THE WASHING MACHINE???? AFTER I TOLD YOU TO NEVER, I MEAN NEVER, TO PUT ANYTHING I KNIT FOR YOU INTO THE WASHING MACHINE?!!!!....he beat me to the punch and pitifully said: "I know, I know....you have always told me to NEVER put anything you knit for me in the washing machine. (Is 'pitifully' a word?)

And his statement kind of burst my balloon of my planned flip out. So I simply told him in a normal voice echoing the same thing: "Blaine, I repeat---NEVER put anything I knit for you in the washer."

Blaine: "I won't."

After he went to work this morning my curiosity got the best of me and I went down into the basement. I found the sock and to my utter mortification I saw that he had been trying to stretch the sock out! He had stuck a beer can and also a tube meant to make oil and vinegar salad dressing inside the sock. But it hadn't worked. Most of the sock was felted. And it had shrunk to to the size that would fit an 8 year old.

Sigh......

(A tube to make oil and vinegar salad dressing??? REALLY? Lord have mercy.....)

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Okay, I'm Getting Sick Of This Damn Snow...

Yep, we had another damn snowfall. And, as usual, the damn snow plow hasn't come to our street.

And what's at issue at the moment is that the mobile therapist is coming today. But she likes me to drive my truck on our outings because "that will get me used to doing things outside of the house".

Whatever.

But I know that Blaine wouldn't allow me to drive on these road conditions--- so she can just whistle Dixie if she expects me to drive.

The main roads are plowed but the neighborhood streets and town side streets are largely unplowed. And we live on the downslope of a hill.

So I'm just going to ask the mobile therapist to drive. If she doesn't want to, we can just sit in the living room and either have a therapy session or twiddle our thumbs. (And I'm wondering if she can get through this unplowed street to our house herself.)

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Superbowl Sunday

Slowly, our neighborhood digs out from what the authorities here are calling "The Blizzard of 2011". And I totally agree with them--it definitely was a gigantic blizzard. Now all you can see is the pyramids of snow from the shoveling of driveways and sidewalks. I think they look strange.

But today is a consolation prize for football fans---it's Superbowl Sunday and Green Bay is playing against Pittsburgh. I'm rooting for Green Bay because I have never liked to remember my years in the city of Pittsburgh since graduating from nursing school there.

Nursing school practically killed me and so I don't really like to harbor those dark memories. If you want to know what happened to me and my 2 intrepid classmates in Pittsburg, read the "Who ya gonna call?" series of blogposts. There's "Part One" through Part Five". (Part One starts out slow because the whole blogpost came out of me griping about Blaine watching ghost hunting TV shows, which I think are fake---and my saying that I could tell a real ghost story of something which happened to me in nursing school. And then the whole story of my nursing school experience came tumbling out.....)

Where was I?

Oh yeah, Superbowl Sunday.

The above is a picture of Leonard, moving into position on the top of the couch, ready for the standard Superbowl Sunday couch ride. Notice his tongue sticking out in an act of defiance. Leonard doesn't like getting his picture taken.

Below is when Blaine joined Leonard and they both got into their main "Superbowl Watching Position". Looks like Leonard is already asleep. Never mind that it's not time for the Superbowl game yet---they just wanted to claim the couch before I could, dammit.

I guess the enjoyment I'll get out of the game is my knitting and watching the Superbowl's TV commercials. The Superbowl's special TV commercials are something that people wait for all year. (Remember those frog commercials from a Superbowl a zillion years ago?)

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Dig Out Day....And There's Chili!

Well the blizzard finally stopped......and this is what it left--- plus drifts due to the high winds during the snow storm. The snow dropped upon us was around 12"-14" deep, depending on where you were in the Kansas City area.

My beef is that because of the damn idiots who parked their vehicles on our neighborhood's street and the 2 cul-de-sacs, the plows haven't come. But fortunately, all the neighborhood's SUV's have bravely struggled around the cul-de-sac and then up the hill, "flattening" the street snow to the level that might possibly allow those of us without 4-wheel drive to get out. (Except for that part at the point where your shoveling effort ends and the street begins---where there's a bump of snow.)

Blaine shoveled the whole driveway---ours and the landlord's--- as you can see above, which is good because that pays back a favor to for our landlord, who shoveled both driveways after the last snow episode.

Anyhoo, now Blaine's in the kitchen making a pot of his famous chili, yay!!!

Blaine says he's not going to allow me to go to therapy for my "long day" at the psych center tomorrow. He doesn't want me to drive on poor road conditions---he doesn't trust that the city will plow well enough, salt well enough, or whatever. That's fine. He took tomorrow off and so I'd rather stay home anyway, to be with him.

After all.....I've got to make that chili pie with the chili leftovers!!

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The Blizzard Shows No Signs of Stopping...

The shovel shows where Blaine had shoveled a pathway for his car to get into the garage. Now, that place where he shoveled is gone, buried under the snow. He said a cussword when I told him about it.

The problem with these pictures are that you can't see the blowing of the snow. But trust me, it's blowing hard and has just increased. The weather man said that this is the worst snow storm he's seen in all the years he's been in Kansas. And now, due to the blowing snow, visibility is so bad that they don't even know if the plow trucks will be able to get out on the roads.

See those idiots parked on the street down there? That's why our neighborhood's snow plow trucks get mad. You are SUPPOSED to keep your damn car OFF the damn street so that the plows can do their damn jobs!

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They Weren't Foolin' When They Said It'd Be A Blizzard!

I'm beginning to wonder if Blaine's going to be able to drive home in this mess.

They haven't plowed our street yet. Which is okay because all the snow that's going to drop hasn't happened yet. But I'm worried about Blaine because there's a layer of ice underneath the snow....

Update, 12:30pm :

Blaine just left work and says he'll make it in this snow. He said he's even going to try and stop at the grocery store in this mess. Let's all cross our fingers that he makes it home safely!

Update #2:

Blaine made it home but is now trying to get up the driveway and into the garage. No such luck. He's out there slipping and sliding. (As is another neighbor down the steet). Finally, he had to go get the shovel and is shoveling snow out of the way so he can make it into the drive.

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And The Snow Goes On And On......

Blaine is at work. I'm wondering how he'll get home.

The Snow Is Not Stopping....

The camera doesn't show it but the worsening snow is being blown sideways by strong winds.

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The Blizzard is Coming!! The Blizzard is Coming!!

The Blizzard hath cometh.......

It was a lighter when we woke up--a faint amount of flurrying. So Blaine went on in to work. And then I took a nap on the couch since I still sleepy and didn't have anything to do.

When I woke up, it was a heavier snow fall---like these two pictures. I just hope Blaine gets to come home when he wants!

I'll keep you guys posted!

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