E Bay

I just listed my very first item ever on E-bay. They say you can sell anything. We'll see what the market is for totally random items.

Original Leather Cover for Amazon's Keyboard Kindle 3rd generation

20 bucks or your best offer. . . .You pay shipping.

2017 - toe in the water

January 1, 2017 Folly Beach, SC

Suffice it to say the year begins with a lot of trepidation.

Garrison Keillor, in response to the comment that "The Writer's Almanac" now seems to be a form of resistance, a weapon with the potential to soften nationalistic hearts and provide a literary antidote to jingoism, says, "What poetry tells us is: you can gain the whole world and lose your own soul -- look to your soul.

I think I'll go re-subscribe to "The Writer's Almanac".

It's been a rainy week here in Lake Lowcountry. Mom visited last week and helped me plant and/or repot some pots, so it looks a little more cared for around here. All the rain has helped all these new plants to relax and snuggle their roots down, down, down. Things have visibly grown in just 10 days.
Mom left me with explicit instructions to water and fertilize frequently. Mother Nature has been helping me out there.

Other wins have been that I'm feeling quite a bit better after a recent doctor visit confirming that my thyroid levels were totally out of whack, I got rid of many random partial sets of dishes and bought a nice set, so the cabinets are less cluttered. I've been for a walk most days, and a friend and I are going to start a weekly yoga class. I've figured out how to change my Kindle from mom's account to mine and I didn't lose the books she had bought. I've figured out how to download an audiobook, purchased from Audible, through Amazon, onto my Ipod (my new plan for walking entertainment). I spent a couple of mornings writing emails to SC Senators and Representatives for a friend who is trying to get a political appointment. And the Cubs are winning.

My knitting however is a bit at an impasse. I tried to do a sweater for a toddler, and made that unfortunate mistake of two balls of yarn from different dye lots. So reknit in a different yarn, and still not completely happy with the pattern's way of doing bringing the cap sleeve together under the arm.

I've been knitting a pair of socks with yarn purchased in the fall at SAFF. I was never happy with the first sock -- the cuff was not tight enough and it was overall too big. So after I got through with the 2nd sock where I corrected these issues, I unraveled the first and began to reknit. All was well until I realized I had not cast on enough stitches and this sock was going to be an entire pattern repeat smaller than its mate. So, I unraveled again, and am going at it for the 3rd time (surely the charm but I've lost interest).

For the coming week, my hope is to pull together the new lower deck to be a pleasant place to sit and enjoy coffee or a glass of wine. I'm going to do some spray painting and perhaps experiment with chalk paint.  Hmm fun times ahead.

Two weeks ago, I put this oblilisk-shaped trellis beside this clump of ivy.
It is already going for it!

I have a vague memory of my grandmother trying to teach me to crochet and it not going well. I had the opportunity to try again at a recent Fiber Guild meeting and heard several similar stories around the room. Other comments heard that afternoon:  "and we thought weaving was complicated!" "What do I do now?" "Where do I hold it?"

First learning something new is always really awkward. Here is my first attempt. The really neat parts were done by Natalie by way of showing me how. (I loved watching her hands fly!) The really wonky parts were done by me by way of trying. Needless to say, my hands did not fly.

 I came home and kept fiddling with it, then watched a couple of YouTube videos. Then I tried again.

It definitely has some tension issues. There's a lot of loosey-goosey going on -- but still. It has possibilities for using small amounts of left-over yarn..

And because Chain of Fools kept running thru my head, here's Aretha:

There's a New Cat in Town

After Fred died, we said we weren't going to get another cat. I really enjoyed not sharing the bathroom. I noticed that it really was easier to keep the house clean. We held out for 4 months. Meet the new cat at our house -- he came with the very appropriate name Leon.

 Leon first belonged to a neighbor. We fed him for her several times when she traveled. He was young, playful, neater than many cats. Neighbor had to move and find a new home for Leon. We couldn't take him because Fred was so pathetic. So Leon went to someone else, and I recently heard thru the grapevine that his new home wasn't working out very well. We had the chance to take him in and pretty easily made the decision to have him.

He's a noble looking beast, isn't he? Really large (fits right in at our house) -- 24 pounds. I think he is 4 years old. The longer he's here, he is relaxing some and becoming very playful again. A real romper and stomper!

 This lovely quilt showed up on Facebook and I'm struck by how much it looks like our new boy.. 

Spring Forward

Playing Around

We're home from a fun trip down to Florida to see Spring Training baseball. It was too far to go to Arizona to see my beloved Cubbies, so we settled for a  few random games in the Grapefruit League. Sarasota, Bradenton, and Tampa -- then up to Tarpon Springs to see friends there.

In Sarasota, we went to a night game -- Orioles vs Tampa Bay at Ed Smith Stadium. Tampa Bay outplayed Baltimore but I could see why they all need a few weeks of practice before the season starts. Lots of missed opportunities on both sides.


Sunday was an afternoon game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Houston Astros in Bradenton at McKechnie Field.

McKechnie Field was pretty small, but it had a great atmosphere. Maybe because it was Sunday afternoon there were lots of families there. The concessions were outside and there was a lawn area where people were chilling out in chaise lounges and playing with the kids who were too little or just tired of the game.

This guy sat in front of us and kept score. His dad said he had is own set of metrics. According to our pastor who is a huge Cardinals fan and preaches a baseball sermon every summer, this is what it's all about -- kids growing up with the game.

Here's a Pirate at bat.

Day Three -- We fought the traffic into Tampa to see the Yankees play the Astros at George Steinbrenner Field. Compared to the other stadiums we went to, this one was super delux!

It was the prettiest field, but most boring game we saw. The score ended up Astros -1, Yankees - 0. It seemed all the hits were pop flys or outs on first.

It was a fun time. This was our Christmas present to each other. I like it a lot more than a sweater.