A Couple Funnies

Sister Susi needed to send e-mails to certain groups of people and wanted some advice for titles for her folders. You know Susi is nutty-crunchy, (she says it's "earthy crunchy" but I think a lot of those people in the hill towns in Mass. are nutty!) and e-mails were of a political, organic, nutty-crunchy bent.
Here was Jim's answer to her quandry:
"You could probably separate your e-mail address book into groups, names of groups and e-mail things in chunks.
I recommend group headings: LOCAL, VOCAL, YOKEL and LOCO. Or, maybe WORK, QUIRK,
SMIRK and JERK.

                                                          THE CAT IN THE HAT
                                                                    On Aging

I cannot see
I cannot pee
I cannot chew
I cannot screw
Oh my gosh, what can I do?
My memory shrinks
My hearing stinks
No sense of smell
I look like hell
My mood is bad - can you tell?
My body's drooping
Have trouble pooping
The Golden Years have come at last
The Golden Years can kiss my ass!
                                                       

Bill and Me and A Dishcloth and A Poem

Bill's cottage on the Grand River (hope I got that right, Bill) in tucked in among trees and when the weather is rainy, the cottage can get very humid and takes a long time to "dry" out.


 Bill asked my once how he could get the musty smell out of his dishcloths. Everything I suggested didn't work. So, I suggested something in a poem.
                       
                                                     Ode About a Dishcloth
It's humid and it won't dry.
It smells and I don't know why.
Is it the food scraps that cling
Or wiping up that icky thing?
Why won't detergent make it sweet
Instead of smelling like dirty feet?
What a dilemma! A quandary for sure!
Why can't a dishcloth smell sweet and pure?
Ah me! Ah me! It smells like pee!
Do I care or give a twit
because my dishcloth smells like shit?
You are darn right I do!
I'm going out and buy some new...........
...........Dishcloths!

Dr. Who's Scarf in Feminine Colors

                                                               Picture 1

                                                                   Picture 2

                                         
                                                                Picture 3

"Dr. Who" is a BBC production - science fiction in genre - that features a character who can travel through time. A knitter picked up on a scarf Dr. Who wore, copied the colors and number of rows and put the pattern out there for all those interested in knitting forever to make the scarf! The pattern is very easy and I can easily do 12-14" of an evening. If you want more info about Dr. Who and the scarf, Wikipedia gives a concise summary of the show. Go to The Google, put in "Dr. Who's Scarf", then click on images. Check out the scarf on the man in the upper left corner. The scarf, which is fringed, goes from the floor, up around the neck in a huge loop, then back to the floor. Such fun and knitting keeps me off the street and out of the bars. And.............I can enjoy my wine while I knit!

Scarves, Scarves and More Scarves

 I have found a charming tearoom down the street that is taking my scarves to sell. I decided to take pictures and put them here. (A fly just buzzed around my computer! Yuck!)
The multi-colored one above is a Mobeuis Cowl - mobeuis meaning a continuing circle with one twist
in it. (Notice the blue dishpan in the kitchen? Must remember to look before I snap)! This yarn changes color within the skein.

This scarf, pic above and below, is made with a yarn that has balls (pompoms) every 1 1/2". You can see the yarn in the tail hanging down. Funky, eh?

 This is another cowl - no twist in this one. The yarn changes from medium pink to light pink to white.
(In the background you can see my red and black plaid library bag and blue plaid throw rug).

 My knitting friends call this scarf the Slut Scarf. :-) The material looks like red tinsel. It is fun to knit -
can do one in an evening. Only thing is - yarn is expensive and with the tearoom commission,  I don't even make enough to cover my cost. (Green coffee can is in the background).

These scarves are all knit the same way - all with the same kind of yarn - colors are different. All these scarves are laying on a wicker chair that I brought home from Joan's mobile home.
I am now going to look for pictures of a scarf I am making and put them up here. This scarf is very unusual and will need some explaining. Back soon.

A potpourri of Pictures

 I have some pictures that don't fit into any one category. I've put them all together and will say something about them as we go along. This is my son, Steve, and his lovely family. From left to right -
Janet, Steve's wife - a school teacher - wonderful mother and wife - Rio, 5, a real sweetie, Steve, my dear youngest child, Maddie, who has turned into a pretty young lady! and Nathan, who  has grown into a fine looking young man. The Pittaways live in Las Vegas, New Mexico - yes, New Mexico. It was there before the Nevada city. I went there for Janet and Steve's wedding and then again 5 years ago when Rio was born. It is a great town - there is an old neighborhood - very Spanish, Mexican, and a
new neighborhood with far less charm. It has a Wal-Mart. Need I say more?  :-)

The next two pictures were taken at Carol and Jerry's wedding. I have known Carol since 1985, when she came to judi's creative needle. She remembered Joan and me but we didn't remember her because she was younger than us and who remembers the younger kids when you are in high school?
Carol lost her husband, Bill and Jerry lost his wife, Pat, who was Carol's sister. Jerry and Carol started
seeing each other and Voila! they were married this past Saturday.

Aren't they a handsome couple!

 Many years ago I started stitching this huge sampler. It was a facsimile of a sampler done in the 1700's.
I soon lost interest in stitching on it - also thought it would cost an arm and leg to have it framed. My friend, Karla, suggested we pass the sampler around and let my stitching friends do bits of it and that way get it done. Then it disappeared! In March Karla was cleaning up her piles and piles of cross stitch and guess what she found? The sampler! We took it to Yarn Envy and asked Heather if she'd like it. She
said "yes" and it is now in her hands. I asked her to finish it in the next 10 years so I would be alive to see it.

 Remember the tree covered with snow? Here she is in full bloom, my lovely lilac tree. It is right outside my back porch and when the windows or door is open, you can smell the wonderful aroma of lilac.

I would like to introduce you to my dear friend, Marlene. I wrote of Marlene and her husband, Jim

in an earlier post. Once a month I go to Subway, get a healthy chicken sub, then to Marlene's with sub for lunch and a movie from Netflix. We sit in Marlene's "Mom's Cave" and enjoy the film and food.

One of these days I am gong to take photos of Marlene's prize-winning quilts and put them on this blog.

Joan Ackland - my sister, my friend 1931-2011

This is a picture of Joan, taken in 2010, just before she became ill. It sits in this flamingo frame that was hers. She loved flamingos - high class "flamgos", as we sisters called them - none of that plastic kind you
stick in the ground outside your house.

Joan donated her body to University of Toledo Medical Center. Every year the college has a memorial service for the families of those people who donated their bodies. I wrote a short piece about my dear sis and sent it along with this picture to be displayed at the service. This is what I said about Joan.

Joan and I were 13 months apart in age. We sometimes called ourselves "almost twins".
Joan never married but I shared my children with her and she loved them as I do. She filled her retirement years (30+ years with Ohio Bell - in Toledo - Columbus - Cleveland), playing solitaire on the computer (her favorite was free cell), watching the latest movies and reading English mysteries by her favorite authors, Ruth Rendell, Elizabeth George and P.D. James. (Notice they are all female?)
One of Joan's favorite things was making a house the personal expression of herself. When she finished decorating one she was ready to move onto another. Through the years Joan owned 8 houses.
I miss Joan very much, my beloved sister, my dear friend.
What I have put into parentheses are words I added just now.

These drawings of Joan's houses were done by our dear friend, Jim Polk. He is very well known in the Cleveland area and across the U.S. for his house portraits. Interested? let me know and I'll hook you up
 with him.
This is Joan's first Florida house - located in Cape Coral.
In the back yard was a huge avocado tree! A man came to the house one day and asked if he could pick them. He would give her x number of $s for each bushel. She sold them to him but asked him for 2 green ones that she sent home with me. Yummy, yummy!!

 
This is Joan's second house, located in Fort Myers, Florida. Notice the flora in both of these houses. Joan joined the Florida Native Plant Society and had her yards landscaped with native Florida plants.
She bought a huge generator that sat on a cement slab outside the house. She also had a double storage shed in the back yard. She had a reverse mortgage on this house and because she had to move away, ran into an unbelievable amount of trouble. (I am still dealing with the mortgage company). Sadly, the mortgage company did not look at Joan's lovely, updated house and soon the generator was stolen and then the shed. I'm sure the inside has been ravaged, too.

This is a house in Old German Village in Columbus, OH. When Joan was transferred (and probably promoted) with Ohio Bell she lived in this house, at that time broken up into 2 apartments. She eventually bought the house. It was her first purchase and she had a lot of trouble getting a loan. Loaning to a woman was unheard of and she really fought to get a mortgage. She won! In the yard was an apricot tree that produced wonderful, juicy apricots.

This house is located in Ohio City, an area much like Toledo's Old West End. Joan was transferred (and, again, probably promoted, to Cleveland) and lived with a cousin in Ohio City. One day, strolling through the neighborhood, she saw this abandoned house. She found the owner and worked with him a long time before he finally agreed to sell the house. She got it for a song!
She began to refurbish the house but..........one night three young men broke in and held her at gun point and robbed her. She quickly sold the place and moved on to................

......this house on the west side of Cleveland. I was now divorced and spent a number of weeks and week-ends here. 

After our mother died in 1982, and Joan realized she was not going to live forever, we bought a house on Main Street here in Sylvania. (The house is no longer there - was torn down for a condo site). This is the house where we lived when judi's creative needle was established. When we sold this house Joan gave the portrait to the new owners, thus no picture.

Joan moved onto a lake property that Jim never saw - and so no portrait. From the lake in Michigan, she went to Florida.

Joan became very ill in Florida and had to be on oxygen 24/7. Jim and I went to Florida to help Joan with a moving sale. She bought a trailer (manager would cringe when we said the word "trailer". He called them "manufactured homes" but they were double-wide trailers!) she immediately started to make this place her own by painting, decorating, etc. Sadly, she developed pneumonia, went to the hospital, was put on a vent, learned she would never get off the vent, went to hospice and died.

 

I wanted to share this with you viewers. Joan was such a dear sister and friend and she needs to be a part of my blog. 

TOPS Officers Election on March 26, 2012

 I belong to a weight management group - TOPS - Take Off Pounds Sensibly. I've been a member since 2007, doing my best to take it off and keep it off. Not an easy job!
In March, after offering a bribe to most of the members, I was elected leader of the group. I will now serve for a year and, if I'm stupid enough, may run for a second term.
I enjoy these ladies - 24 in all - and will do my best to help them on their weight-loss journey.

In the picture above are Penny Reder and Janice Mills, Assistant Weight Recorders, Aretta Adams, Weight Recorder, Pam Karn, Treasurer, Debbie Smith, Secretary, Sientje Vanderhoeven, Co-leader and yours truly. In this picture I have already removed my ermine cape and diamond tiara.

Here she is, Judi Pittaway, Leader of Sylvania , OH, Chapter 640.