Pink Glove Dance

A friend living near Portland sent me this…and it is definitely share-worthy!

Here is the comment from the You Tube page

Our employees put together this video to generate breast cancer awareness throughout our hospital system. We had a ton of fun putting this together and hope it inspires others to join in the cause

Shopping as a Competetive Sport

Thanksgiving weekend is remarkable for two reasons – Thanksgiving and then the day for intrepid shoppers, Black Friday.  Sis works in Health Care and often has holidays on duty.  Thursday was one and we ate lunch with her so we could be together.  They do have good cooks and eating the hospital food there is no hardship at all.

It was nice to get together for a meal and of course the talk included some discussion of strategy for shopping the next day.  Sis wanted a Walmart doorbuster item and volunteered me to sit in line at Office Depot for a netbook computer.   A friend needed the computer for her family and I was happy to help out.  Well, maybe not HAPPY but willing.  The weather is finally cooling off in Florida and Friday early morning was going to be cold.  Some of you may be laughing at me but hey, I was BORN in Fla and don’t know cold.  I even had to borrow a jacket, sweater, and quilt from sis.

This is going to be an adventure!

Up at 3 am.  There is a 3 am, and I Have Seen It.  It exists.  Checklist:  cold weather gear, folding chair, knitting, book, snacks.  Ready to go!  Drop sis off at the Walmart door and she joins the herd of people coming in from the rapidly filling parking lot.  I zip across to the Office Depot across the street  and park RIGHT in front of the store, in a parking place in front of my spot in line.  I can live with this.

About 10 people are ahead of me in line and most of them are there for the large notebook computer so I will probably get the netbook.  Good.  So I relax and chat with my new buds.

One is a soccer mom that home schools her kids.  So I ask how it is going for her kids and we chat about nearly everything under the sun interspersed with check-in calls from family members .  What did we ever do before cell phones?  While we were waiting her daughter called to give an update on her and grandma’s quest for the iPod Touch at Walmart.  They were able to find one but were not able to purchase it before the magic hour of 5 am.  The next call expressed a bit of excitement – two women had started arguing and were fighting.  A few minutes later an ambulance drives by and turns into Walmart parking lot.  Hmmm… correlation?

It is cold, but I am cozy under my layers of almost matching clothing and quilt.  I decide the parking lot lights are bright enough to knit, so pull out some Christmas knitting to see if I can get a few more rows completed.  The project is pretty simple, and no complex pattern to follow.  Knitting does make the time go more quickly and soon the daughter and grandma were there, having successfully completed their mission.

Some more details on the Walmart fight:  the argument exploded into a fistfight with actual BLOOD.   Daughter and Grandma didn’t stick around once blood started flowing and didn’t see the ambulance.  Sis called me and I asked her if she had seen the fight.  Nope, so no more info on that!

Office Depot has some good ideas for Black Friday stuff.  They have a “coupon” for each popular item and start at the front of the line to award the frozen customer with the proof that getting up at oh-my-thirty is really worth it.   A Netbook computer coupon was mine (the computer isn’t, but the coupon was).  I even got a doughnut as an additional reward.  It was cold.  But good!

Once the doors were opened and we were able to proceed into the store, a woman in back of me asked me if I was walking slowly just to hold HER up.  I quickly moved out of the lane of traffic and let her pass.  Then I just could not hold it in any longer and told her that yes, I got up at 3 am and sat in line in the cold for over 2 hours JUST TO MAKE HER MISERABLE.

That was evil of me, but good grief – I was looking for one of the under $10  items to purchase and there was a good chance they were located in the front of the store.

Success, and then traveled back to Walmart to wait or sis’s call to Pick her up at the front door.  Her cart is full and we load up, ready to move to the third store in the master plan, Target.  When I let her out I was headed to Chik-fil-a to get breakfast and totally missed when she tripped over the curb, fell into the trash can and amazed onlookers with my disregard for her plight.

Sigh.  I am a Bad Sister.

She was fine.  Although her mood was not improved because she left her cell phone behind and wasn’t able to call me to pick her up.  It was a long way to the back of the parking lot where I was sitting and blissfully knitting.  The remainder of the day was less eventful and Kohls, Bealls, and JoAnns Fabrics received visits from us.   Sis was dropped at each front door and I sat in the parking lot listening to Christmas Carols on the radio, knitting, and watching the parking lots fill up.  Ever aware of the call to start the engine and proceed to the next store.  I was beginning to wonder if we were going to run out of room in the trusty shopping mobile.

I did go into JoAnns as they had a few items I wanted to pick up and was able to get nearly all I wanted from that store.  It was hard to believe we had covered so much ground before noon.  Amazing what you can accomplish when you wake before the sun!

The expedition ended at a new Japanese Steakhouse, a fantastic reward for the exertions of the day.

At least I have some new stories to tell!

Spinning in Public

Today was gorgeous.  It was in the 70’s when I pulled into my favorite local park by the river.  You may recognize it, the scene of the anointing of my “Bird Poop Socks”.  Late in the afternoon the picnic table next to the boardwalk IN THE CLEARING was free so I set up there.

Cypress trees and moss

The idea was to take some pictures of my hand-spun yarn with the weathered wood of the boardwalk as a backdrop and do some spinning.

Pictures came first while the light was good – bright and mostly overcast with bursts of sunshine.  It was quite breezy so I was a bit apprehensive about setting some of the tiny skeins on the walkway and held some in my hand.

A couple of my favorite pictures:

The first yarn is Rambouillet from Lazy Dog Farm in Texas.  Very very soft and fun to spin.  Two ply, about DK weight.  I think 80 yards.

The mini skein is my “mutant” roving – the sheep breed is CVM or California Variegated Mutant.  The breed is a result of crosses of Romney and Rambouillet sheep from nearly a century ago.  Not quite as soft as the straight Rambouillet and very nice to spin.  I  have about 5 more ounces, and I WANT MORE.  2 ply, sock weight.  I was going for lace weight, and it fluffied up on me.  For comparison the white yarn tied around the skein to hold it in place is good ole’ acrylic worsted.

Spinning

A near-constant breeze and gusts made it a bit windy but not too windy to spin.  The temperature was nice and it was like sitting outside in air conditioning… After I relaxed into the process, I was concentrating so thoroughly I was startled when a woman started talking to me.   We had a nice visit and she admired the single I was making.  After she and her dogs left, others walked by and spoke including a man that mentioned his mother used to spin with a spindle, and make blankets and rugs.

It is fun to talk to people about my spinning and I was able to get a nice start on a Christmas present for a member of my family.

One last picture:

Beach Trip!

Sis needed a beach trip – soak up a bit of salt air, watch the waves, and have a refreshing get-away.  I got to go too!   As we started from her house to head to Daytona Beach Shores the threatening grey sky turned to rain.  Much of the way is on a 2-lane highway and we had the fortune to follow a garbage truck on the way to the dump.  For miles.  And miles. In the rain.  You can almost see the reflection of the camera cozy I was knitting in the picture below.

The camera.  Sigh.  I had misplaced my camera over a month ago and could not find it anywhere.  So sis loaned me an extra camera she had at home and I could once again take pictures.  Side note – yesterday I was looking for a specific color of yarn, and in a small box UNDER the yarn I saw the edge of my camera.  YAY.  It was not left behind somewhere and I have it again.  Sis’s camera is fun to use with all the different settings and it doesn’t gorge itself on batteries like mine, but there is nothing like your OWN camera back.

The rain did end but were were left with cloudy skies.  First stop in Daytona was at Krispy Kreme Donuts.  The Hot Light was not on but they did have some warm glazed donuts (without the hole) of which we consumed way too many.  Then onward to Beach Street and the Scrapbooking store.  I sat and knitted while Sis found some pages she needed.  As we crossed the Halifax River on Dunlawton Bridge we got our first view of…THE BEACH!  Well, at this point it was ocean, but we are nearly there.

To the stoplight and turn left – a familiar path as we have stayed on this “end” of the beach before.  Saw a number of restaurants with closed signs.  Sad – including one Diner type place that had been there for years.

As we unloaded the car at the motel, the box of donuts fell to the ground, spilling FOUR of them.  I do admit that I was ALMOST tempted by the 5 second rule, but we were outside in the parking lot.  At the beach.  Sand…yuk.  And just general yuk, too.

Awesome room – 8th floor at the top of the hotel!  Great view, balcony, kitchen, and even comfy chairs!

First beach meal – takeout from DJ’s from under the bridge – It is a fun place to eat as they have wooden tables with thatched umbrellas as outside seating.  An interesting river view and you can even purchase fish crunchies (Purina fish chow?)  to feed the fish.  Both of us love the scallops and shrimp, so we split the meals and share the fresh seafood.

This is the view from the outside seating

I scurried back to our room and we ate sitting on our balcony, gazing at the ocean.  Ahhh…  Then it was time to change to the swimsuits and check out the water slide.  The hotel had an adult-sized water slide and we both tried it out, laughing all the way.

And the beach looked like this:

Cheery, huh?  We messed around in the pool and the hot tub…not much else was noteworthy the first day.

Day 2 -

Woke up just in time to take pictures of the sunrise and then back to bed…LOL

Waking up the second time, I find out Sis is ill.  Oh, dear.  I make a CVS run for bottled water, meds, and batteries.  Sis takes her meds and goes back to bed.  The notable meal of the day is delivery from an italian restaurant and is AWESOME.  The pizza was tasty, crunchy, and loaded with the good stuff.  We also ordered a toasted sub sandwich and it was just as good.  Will definitely be ordering from them again, Genovese’s Italian Restaurant (looked up the phone number and address to include here so I’ll remember it…LOL) 1116 Dunlawton Blvd 386-767-4151.

The day cleared up for a few hours, and I spent most of it spinning and reading.  A nearly perfect day for me, and miserable for sis.

and wool/spinning pictures for my fibery friends:

I slept through most of sunrise on the next morning, and before we knew it time to leave had arrived.

On the way home we stopped at an interesting little place on the St. John’s River for lunch.  We ate looking out at the hot summery day and watched the river flow lazily by.

Mini vacation was over.

How a Differential Gear Works – Link

One of the blogs I enjoy reading published a excerpt from a General Motors 1930’s filmstrip about how a Differential Gear works.  This is one of the clearest and best explanations I’ve seen.

Check it out for yourself!

Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog

Postcard-Indian Rocks Beach Restaurant-Mob Connection? 1950’s?

Indian Rocks Beach Restaurant, Cocktail Lounge & Bar

The description on the back of the card reads: “19915 Gulf Blvd.  1/4 mile South of Indian Rocks Bridge.  Telephone 9-8283.  Mailing Address: Rt. 1, Box 254, Largo, Florida.  Chicken-Steaks-Seafood.  Capt Joe Urga: ‘I’ve traveled all over the world and spent most of my life on the sea.  I found a nice spot on Indian Rocks Beach, won’t you come and enjoy it with me?’.”

I bet they did have great seafood!  I wondered about Capt. Joe Urga and looked him up.  He was the owner!  Aug 30, 1953 advertisement for the restaurant in the St. Petersburg Times states, “…Finest Greek salads and seasonings, Capt. Joe Urga, host.”

An article in The Evening Independent, Jan 24, 1964 tells a little more about the Urga family.

“The vast collection of china, statuary and furniture which once graced the Indian Rocks restaurant belonging to the late Capt. Joe Urga will be auctioned off…”

The Auctioneer “…was handling the sale for the captain’s widow, Madame Diamente Urga…”

“Many of the objects now awaiting sale came from a Roman villa once owned by Captain Urga, who was also an Italian Marquis.  The documentation for the Renaissance sculpture lists him both as marquis and captain of the Italian Navy.  He also served in the US Merchant Marine.”

Madame Urga was also famous, “Madame Urga, a licensed midwife for many years, was convicted three times over a 20-year period for performing abortions.  Two convictions were later reversed.  A third conviction in 1962 currently is under appeal.”

More personal drama accompanied the couple, and the article also brings up this bit of infamy.  Apparently a Mrs. W had shot Madame Urga in 1936, wounding her slightly in the arm.  Mrs. W received a $100 fine. In 1956 Mrs. W once again pulled out her weapon and “…shot and seriously wounded herself at the Urga’s luxurious beach home, adjoining the restaurant.”  According to the article Mrs. W also shot Capt. Urga, but the severity of his injury wasn’t clear.

I love Madame Urga’s comment to a reporter, “My husband is a wonderful man but she has been giving me trouble for 20 years.”

The next google link took me to a summary of the Special Report from the Texas Crime Investigating Committee and places a Joseph Urga on the list of Tampa mob figures circa 1950’s.  Hmmm…wonder if it is the same man?

Published by Florida Speaks Corp, St. Petersburg Florida
Not Postmarked
Very Good Condition

Interested?  Currently item 400067715001 on eBay

Corny Biscuits and the Kapok Tree

I provided my wonderful biscuit recipe in an earlier post.  An easy improvement – BUY NEW BAKING POWDER.  I used up the old and bought a new can, and I am simply amazed at the difference in quality of the biscuits.  The previous can was a bit old, but it had never been opened so I thought it was probably OK.  Nope.  The new biscuits are so much lighter they almost float.

While sorting through postcards I came across some of the Kapok Tree in Clearwater, FL.  We had gone there for some Important Family Occasions when I was in my early teens.  My Aunt lived just north of Clearwater and when we came to visit everyone would get all dressed up and we would drive down, park, and enter the lovely sculpture and fountain-filled gardens.

I remember the extravagant dining areas and coordinating restrooms.  And the corn fritters.  I was making biscuits one day and thought about making corn muffins with corn and jiffy mix.  Opened the can of corn and then got down the box of jiffy mix.  Uh Oh.  It was too old.  In the trash.  Was not in the mood to eat corn as a vegetable so I thought corny biscuits!

Corny Biscuits

1 cup all purpose flour

1 Tbs dry milk powder

1 1/2 Tbs baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1Tbs dried onion flakes

2 Tbs sugar

1/2 can of corn – about 7 oz

drain corn juice into measuring cup and add milk or water to make 3 oz

1 oz canola oil

mix, and make drop biscuits.  Bake. Makes 1/2 batch.

They are delicious and I’ve made them several times.

Back to the postcards.  After seeing the Kapok Tree postcard, I remembered how much I liked the CORN FRITTERS they served family style with every meal.  I think we would have been happy with individual plates of corn fritters.  The recipe is online, and I checked.  The only difference between my corny biscuits and their fritters – they add an egg and 1/2 the sugar and deep fry them.

I feel almost virtuous.  No deep frying here!

Adventures in Knitting-Secret Revealed

The recipient received her package and loves the bag!  It is a dark fuchsia/pink and felted so it is nice and thick and feels substantial.   Big enough for a lunchbag, purse, or project tote!

This item was felted by hand.  I wanted full control of the process and worked in the sink with hot tap water, a bit of dish soap and a lot of squishing, squishing, and MORE squishing!  Everything shrank except for the handle and I swear it grew.  The bag shrank more vertically than horizontally, but I like the shape.  A bit of visual interest was added with some buttons out of my collection.

I also included several smaller items:

a pink sheep out of the same yarn (Lion Brand Feltable Wool).   The pattern was easy to follow and was found on the Flutterby Patch blog.  Hers have faces…not sure why I decided not to make a face…

It’s only about 2 1/2 inches tall, shown against a backdrop of one of my vintage Florida Postcards.

Stitch markers

in a little bag out of Peaches & Creme in Pink Lemonade.  How about this for bright colors?

Cat Sculptures

A friend sent me the link to images of cats sculptured out of wool in a method called needlefelting!  You really must go look.

My Knitting Adventures – Socks 3B

Sock 3B is progressing quite nicely, considering I am about to go bonkers from trying to juggle size 00 dpns.  How can you all do this?  Knit socks on purpose with dpns?  I’ve seen video of the Yarn Harlot doing it and sit amazed.  The awkwardness is lessening just a bit, but not much and it is taking me about 20 mins to do ONE ROUND.  One measly round.  The first few rounds took about an hour each of torment, so it is clear that I am getting better at this. 

I did Fuzzy Feet for my first knitting project and remember flying right along on the dpns.  I did have a bit of a problem hanging onto the left needle that had given up its last stitch.  It dived for the floor and wanted nothing more to do with me.  One of my knitting group buddies was on the side the needles kept leaping so she was kind enough to fetch them from the floor, but did ask me if I was throwing them at her. 

As much as I hate to admit it, I do like the look of the ribbing with the smaller needles.  It really does look tidier.  This last few rows is going sooooo slow I can barely stand it.  BUT am I going to rip the first sock and redo with the 00’s??  NOPE.  Not unless when I wear them the ribbing is so loose the sock creeps down into my shoe. 

What to do for my next socks?  I have mostly self-striping yarn and all the patterns I really like look great in non-striping yarn.  Of course.  My pattern requirements are something I can do toe up, alter for my poor footsies that are long, normal size at the toes and then widen to accomodate my cankles.  You know – when there is no graceful merging of the leg into a neat, trim ankle and the calf of the leg appears to slam into the the foot?

I have Charlene Schurch’s and Wendy Johnson’s sock books along with all of Ravelry to choose from.  A Ravelry friend has figured out a modification of Monkeys for wider ankles, and I am thinking of trying that. I wonder how it will look in the vibrant purple and yellow Opal yarn a friend gave me?

If anyone has a suggestion, please feel free to speak up!  Either of you!  LOL…