also for this

i am happy to say that we survived another thanksgiving. it has now been four thanksgivings without Mom. on the first we were traveling home from her death...don't remember much of that, except there was no place to stop to eat dinner, not even mcdonalds! finally found a place in wva - a gas station that had opened it's "grill" to serve people on the road...it was a lucky find, i guess. you can find things open on christmas, why not thanksgiving? that was the first time i realized that i couldn't call Mom and tell her we got home safely and no deer found us...that made me cry (it still does). saw this comic today and it made me think of Mom - this is from the comic "speed bump":



anyways...the next year we went to a friend's house with her parents and our niece...hard. last year was odd, but we got honey-baked ham and turkey and had dinner at home...better. this year, no one could understand why we were not having the big to-do. i spent some of yesterday writing a piece of my dissertation and we had honeybaked ham and turkey sandwiches...maybe tonight i will make mashed potatoes and get f to make the pumpkin pie she offered...we even bought "koohwooo" you know, whipped cream in the can that the cats like (webster and sera).

thanks giving is just not the same...maybe in another few years...i want to make a tradition like Mom had in the last few years: invite all the "orphans" over to eat with us, we had a friend of mind from Korea one year for his first family thanksgiving, he had gone with another Korean friend the previous year to a community thanksgiving, but i think he enjoyed our more because it was more family, he brought this beautiful christmas cactus...it has been happy and still growing...started blooming this year a few days before the anniversary of Mom's death...i love it. we had also had other friends over for dinner that had no other place to go and so came to Mom's house to eat and be part of the family. i want that to be part of her legacy...to invite those who don't have other options, for whatever reason, to be part of our family, even if it is only for a day.

maybe that will begin next year, but until then...thanksgiving is sad for me...i think it may always have a hint of sadness, but also joy in sharing what was started with Mom.

Peace

for this (and more) i am thankful

i am thankful that i am still alive and kicking. that i have a girlfriend who loves me and encourages me and friends that do so too. i am thankful to be working and able to do what ever i can. thank you.

peace to mom who died three years ago yesterday. i love and miss you and thank you for everything you did for me and it is alot because of you that i am doing what i am doing now. thanks.

peace.

Staffing the Arc

hello world, we are here waiting for Ida to pass us by...but wait, she may re-organize and make a nor'wester...what fun. we lost a bit of siding today...it is sitting in the side yard looking up at us...have to call the landlord and get him to get the woman who does his handywork over here to replace it. he should have had her install it in the first place and maybe it wouldn't be flying off in the storms. oh, well. not my house, not my problem, i just get to report them.

anyways...it has been raining here for several hours and things are getting a bit soggy...it has been dry, but now the ground is getting saturated...glad to have more sandy soil than clay-y down here...in ohio this would feel worse, but we lived up a hill in ohio and didn't see much effect at home, but people down-river saw big effects when it rained this much. they are predicting 4-7 inches...wonder what the lake down the way looks like and i also wonder what greenmill run looks like...wonder if the "flood lot" has flooded yet, last time it rained hard they just closed the lot so no one could park there and then it didn't rain half as much as they predicted...

emailed my boss and told him we were staffing the Arc and he laughed...shame the cats are neutered (not!) but if we float away, i guess we can't start a new clowder...oh well, health before kittens, and i am sure there are some un-neutered kitties out there that are suffering the rain but will be able to re-populate the entire city, given a chance...stupid college students...NEUTER YOUR PETS, and DON'T JUST THROW THEM OUT WHEN YOU ARE GOING HOME, TAKE THEM WITH YOU, THEY ARE NOT DISPOSABLE!! anyways, enough of the ranting...peace for now.

the squirrel and our trip to the quilt retreat...moslty the squirrel

well, there fonda and i sit, minding our own business - fonda smoking an me rocking in a rocking chair - and there sits a squirrel...quietly, as quiet as squirrels can be, checking out some acorns that had dropped on the deck of the place where we were staying...he was really working at an acorn and then he turned his butt towards us and low and behold...he had nuts...not the kind you are thinking, but cahoonas, gonads, balls, testicals...those kinds of nuts! "damn," i say*, "have you ever seen those on a squirrel?" and fonda replies..."damn, didn't know they got so big!" me: "i guess i have never seen a boy squirrel, only girls in Ohio..." fonda: "me too, humm..." we watch him for a while and marvel at the size of his gonads and discuss the relitive presence of girl squirrles in the state of ohio and wonder where all the new squirrels come from that there has never been a lack of squirrels in our neighborhoods when we were growing up or even later...if there were no boy squirrels...maybe they are parthanogenic and lesbians... ...anyways, well we go up to the class room and i mention about the squirrel and no one says anything...(bunch of prudes, i think)...and sigh, "oh, well..." later...sue (our friend from Nerk (newark), Ohio) comes and says "something, something...squirrel!" i look at her and say, "you saw that, too?" and now i feel relieved because fonda and i are not the only ones who have seen this. so we fall to discussing the anatomy of a certian squirrel and then along comes carolyn (from vermont (or somewhere up there), who happens to be rooming with sue) and the four of us continue talking about the nuts on the squirrel...i am sure that the other women all think we are nuts (no pun intended, really) but we have never seen a squirrel with nuts so big! anyways, that remains a small point of fun for the rest of the time we are there.

when fonda and i left, there was a woman sweeping the dropped acorns off the deck (don't see the point, really, more will fall) and feeding this boy peanuts...just made me wanna laugh.

*conversations are approximate, but \reflect the general thoughts/conversations while some (very small) bits have been made up just to make you laugh...fonda may have more to contribute, but maybe not, i think i covered it all.

Peace, KK

hovercat

don't you just love the picture of the hovercat?? it makes me laugh just to see it...i have a printed copy on my desk in the lab...what fun.

i had always wondered what their feet looked like underneath, well now we know. i am always on the look-out for cool photos...i am happy to have gotten a smaller laptop and it has more memory!! which means that i can keep more photos on it...i have a folder called "cool pictures i didn't take" and it is ~1.44GB at this point...ok, so there are a few pictures i did take (the cats, duh) but it is mostly other people's stuff...i give credit when it is available, but it is not always so, like the hovercat. thank you to whomever took the photo. enjoy. and looking at things from a different perspective is always an option..."it is all about perspective"...and as dr. phil will tell you: "no matter how flat you make a pancake, it still has two sides!" as i said it is all about perspective : )

peace.

what was all the hoop-la about??

so...the big day came and it went...i am now 40, but feel not much differnt. still in school, still not done, you know. everyone was nice about it and all went well. my brother was the only one to mention a hill, and he is seven years older than me, so i guess either he has room to talk, or not...i keep surprising people at school who either don't or can't believe that there might be someone still in college that is not a professor, but is this old...i guess i hang with a young crowd, and they rub off or something.

anyways...i survived and f made me a cake and we went out for dinner last night (yeah, a week late...oh, well--it was by common consent) and had a good time.

we shall see what the next year brings...peace

the count down

OK, now there are just 12 days until i reach that fateful landmark of 40. what will the next decade bring me? i hope it brings graduation, a job and peace and good stuff for all my family and friends...graduation and a job and some peace would be OK too : )

*graduate (may??)
*a job teaching (sometime after may)
*peace--anytime

i am trying to keep my mind open to the prospect of work...i know i want to stay in the south, preferably nc, but willing to go almost anywhere...i want to teach where teaching is the main (only) focus and i will be able to take classes out in the field too...i know there are places that this could happen, i just need to begin my search and more-better focus my aim...just don't really know where to start...sigh...ok...i need to split for now (12 days!) and go to lab...hope all is well.

peace.

my birthday

two weeks until my birthday!! i will be 40 this year, damn time flies

went to nashville, tn last week to present a bit of my data...it went well thanks to the bullying done by some of my cohorts two nights before the presentation. they mean well and i took it as such, but was still a bit frustrated by the event. anyways...it turned out well and seemed to be coherent and to the point...probably tomorrow i am going to begin to translate the powerpoint into the formal written document (chapter of my dissertation & hopefully a journal article).

below is a fun picture taken in downtown nashville--taken mainly for my girlfriend and her mom and brother...i will send them a copy later. : )


all went well, but i was very happy to be home...i remember my dad saying after i graduated with my AAS that he "liked the togetherness...but wanted to try non-togetherness for a while" i had my own apartment shortly after that and that was the way it seemed to be with us, it was nice, but to be together for so long was a bit much for all of us. it was a 12+ hr drive and they wanted to go on an hour-long "behind the scenes" tour of the grand ole opery (@11:30). i ended up sitting out in the courtyard and knitting/reading...what a pia. and noone asked if there was something i wanted to do (not that i would have taken them up on it...i wanted to go home)...by the time we got to ashvill, NC they were thinking that the tour sounded good at the time, but...i just shook my head...sigh...nothing we could do to change it.

well, we made it home and everyone was alive and well (sorta'-cc was sounding sick and milking it and saying that she was "hiding" being sick for the last two days-give me a break!). we all recovered and lived to tell the tale.

two weeks til my birthday

there is nothing happening for my birthday, except that i am getting older and i plan to make myself some cookies or cupcakes to share with the masses at school in celebration of my birthday...i can't wait!! i love my birthday...i just can't believe that i will be 40...damn.

ok, enough of that...time for bed (old lady)

[two weeks until my birthday]

peace
[birthday!!] hehehehehe

check in

well, i spent some money and bought a netbook. it is an ASUS-EEE PC. it is a big change from my 17" dell! damn it is small, but the keyboard is almost as large as the other, but just a little closer...just enough that it is hard to go between them. i think i finally have them figured out now i just need to get them linked in some manner. i think it should be easy...the guy at school said it would be really hard to find the secret place where i could copy my favorites and transfer them to the new laptop, but it was WAY easy...don't know if i was just lucky or if they made it not so secret. we shall see about getting things from one laptop to the other which would make it easy to keep things updated between them.

i have been quilting...made three that were going to go to the estuarium, but only 2 will go. f will add some more things to it and then it will be good and another is ready and then another one is too big to go, but i really had a good time making it and used "big stitch" to quilt it...requires using pearle cotton and maybe 4-5 stitches per inch. compared to a "good" quilter might have 10-12 stitches per inch...that is after a lot of practice, etc. i had a good time and things went well...now i am looking for another hand project (knitting) to entertain myself on a trip to Nashville, TN in two weeks...sigh...that is likely to happen this week.

more later...peace

R.I.P. Steve

today we euthanized steve. he was our gray-eyed-Athina's boy, our ridge-back boy, super-kittie, etc. we miss him terrably at this point, but know it will get better. he was a super kitty. he will be creamated and returned to us. we are not sure what we will do with his ashes yet, but that is ok. more later, i guess...the vet was sweet.

the cricket from hell

hey...now that my feet are healing, and we got a good haul from the garden (2 full salads--lettuce, green pepper, cherry tomatoes, spinach, nasturtiums (leaves and flower))...NOW we have the cricket from hell in the ceiling of our bathroom off the middle room...the cats are scared, and it is REALLY LOUD! i wonder if we are going to be able to hear it in the other room? more later, i guess.

damn, that is annoying!

oh, picts are of the salads : ) top one is mine (has the flower) and bottom one is fonda's (has the tomatoes--yuck)

fire ants II

still suffering-bohtf (back of hand to forehead)-with a suffering-heavy sigh. it is better, but still itchy...meanies. better with the rhul "cream" really just a gel form of alcohol, i think maybe with some aloe in it or something...

anyways...today is the 4th of july...we are doing nothing but waiting for the neighbors to start with their display tonight. it is always a surprise (sort of). we are almost 100% sure they will have fireworks, we are not sure if we will be able to see them and what the cats will do about it, or how long it will last and when it will end. so, hence the surprise. maybe we should drug the cats a bit...humm something to discuss with f.

more later, i guess.

Peace

fire ants

i hate fire ants. that is the main purpose of this entry. my feet itch because of the stupid bitches...modified ovipositor...meanies...mowing in tall grass with only tevas for protection is nothing! but i have NO IDEA how to avoid them...i don't even see them, but they get me anyways...if i knew they were there, i would and do try to avoid them while i am mowing...what a pain in the ankle! but i am also glad that i am only wearing tevas...can you imagine what would happen if i had full shoes and socks on? i would be COVERED with them before i knew what was happening! it is a no-win situation...except for poison...we tried boiling water, with limited success...i have some poison, but i don't want to use it in our garden, what a p.i.a.

oh, and the farmer was using some kind of spray on the tobacco this morning...smelled yucky! so add insult to injury! man, i try to be good and this is the first morning that i have been up that early (~7am)...actually didn't sleep last night/today...now it is almost noon and time for lunch...i guess i will sleep tonight...i sure hope so.

peace...say a prayer for the damn fire ants...i hope they go away soon (without too much poison...i hate to use it)

blog candy, just not mine--click here to go there...

hay, i just learned about a cool woman who is celebrating her birthday by cleaning up her craft area and posting some blog candy. please go to her website http://scrappinoutloud.blogspot.com/ and check out the posibilities...

i think she may have caught the cleaning bug that fonda has and now i am feeling inspired to clean my sewing area and maybe move the laptop back to where it lived a long time ago...in the Middle Room, where few have ventured and some have not returned...actually i just need to clean off all last-years tax stuff and my back pack(s) and stuff...just can't seem to get there and i also do not have a chair there right now.

we shall see what happens...later

sigh...

i have nothing more to show for my spring break...fonda said she wants to see the most recent quilt bigger...that means that we have to get more fabric...that means that we have to go to jackson-ville and also to cotton fields so we have enough to make it larger (doubling, or more??). I wanted to get it done...i have been a bit obsessive over quilts, but now i need to go back to reality and get some dissertation stuff done...sigh...i also have to take amanda to new bern to prove that she is still blind, after 29 (?) years...they need recent medical documentation and i don't know what they are going to do to prove it, but she needs to go to new bern to do it...what a waste of time and energy. poor amanda...we've got to figure out how to get her employed again, or back in school with support. more later, i guess.

quilts...or what i did during spring break

ok...i have managed to "waste" time and started and finished 4 quilts in the last 8 days...i cannot believe it, but i have the proof attached...



this one was to show the blocks, i do not think it is a pretty as it could have been. there are 4 blocks, 6 fabrics per block and 8 fabrics total...no one block has a color more than 1 time. (~3x4, or smaller)i wanted it to show the blocks and how they come together...could be better done...was strictly going for values (light/dark) and the colors are all nice, but it is not what i would have done otherwise.



same pattern, but more purpose-full placement of fabrics...4 blocks, 4 fabrics per block and 8 fabrics, total. (~3.5'x4.5') this one is going to go to my dad once it has been quilted...i think it may be sent near the end of the year, when i can actually quilt it myself, but we shall see what happens...i now have almost 10 quilts to be quilted and not enough money to send them to the quilter we usually use...sigh. ok, more quilts...



this one was really just an excercise that i decided to use some of the "to go" fabric (that we want to leave the house) and i just found colors that didn't bite me when i put them together...not too bad. but this is now a quilt "to go" it still doesn't strike me as a keeper. it will be donated to either a kid in foster/orphan care or to some of the wounded warriers, or a domestic care place...i have to investigate the place it will go, along with the first one on this post...this one is larger, maybe 4'X5' or a little bigger. i am thinking about doing this with some kitty print fabric that we got in february but we want to be able to see the cats more-better than if they were in a small block...the larger squares are 4.5" finished.



this is what we started on friday and i finished on sunday. no obsession here...not with any of the 4 quilts...never...this one was kind'a cool...it went together very easily and looks cool...it was done with 42 different pairs of 5" fabrics and 42 pairs of the green fabric. it will be fun to see the different fabrics that people came up with, put together...helen made hers all scrappy, with 2 different fabrics per pinwheel and a muslin (off white) and carolyn II used a green paisley for the background and a nice rose charm pack to get the other 5" squares. each of the pinwheels ends up being 8" finished...so it is ~4.5'x5.25' with the borders...we only had 1 yard, and i didn't want to use it all up on a wide border, so it will be bound (edged) with one of the fabrics in the quilt. the stripes around the edge actually are used in the quilt in 3 different pinwheels, but it is hard to figure out which ones it is, huh? smile.

ok, i think that maybe enough for now...i need to stop delaying on the damn dissertation stuff and crack down...fonda's computer should be back today or tomorrow and then the laptop will be 100% mine again and i won't have to share. i hate having to share when i want to do some work. frustrating...anyways...now i am killing time to post, but i promised...done. peace, out.

WhiteKnot.org - Marriage Equality

WhiteKnot.org - Marriage Equality

Posted using ShareThis

All should have the right to equality under the law, no matter who you love (as long as those who are involved are of legal age)

We should not have to be afraid that our rights as a spouse could be terminated just because someone doesn't like our relationship. After 17 years of commitment, we should be on-par with everyone else with similar commitments, we are a loving couple and deserve the rights that a man and a woman have, even if they have been married only 1 minute! look at britney spears, a 50-hour wedding was more valid than our relationship of 17 years! no fair!!!!

Anyways, the ribbons are easy enough to make on your own, go to the link and check it out...there are diagrams.

EQUALITY MEANS EQUALITY! NOT SEPARATE, BUT EQUAL, IT DOESN'T WORK AS SHOWN BY OUR HISTORY!

check it out...fun

check it out!! what fun, and not much of a time waster... : )

i turned out to be a "happy dabbler"

(copy and paste the following into your browser--i haven't figured out the web-link stuff yet).

http://youniverse.com/statement/module/ArtModule/Creative_youniverse

my trip to new oreleans

what fun...new orleans. i went with some people from school for the meeting of the Southern Division of the American Fisheries Society. there were 11 of us, 10 students and one spouse (and parents, but we didn't meet them). We had a good time.

we went all over the french quarter


becky, chad and garry near Decatur.


water meter cover--neat art for general public--art on the street

the buildings are way neat, with nice iron work and neat hurricane doors, etc.



We stayed at a really ritzy hotel, the Royal Sonista right on Bourbon Street and complete with a doorman (in top-hat and cape) and concierge and over 500 rooms.



then on the second day, we went to the garden district by trolley and had fun...found 3 cats--one in a cemetery (below), and two in yards


neat tomb--they cannot bury people below ground because the water table is too high, so they have large cemeteries with tombs...some begin really old and some are more new or just with newer dates.



i even saw one with a bench for contemplation...then there are many really neat, pretty houses also with neat hurricane shutters, full door shutters, etc.



THEN on the third day, we went to the aquarium of the americas and i got to pet a penguin!!



how neat is that???

well, then we went to the meeting, which actually started on thursday--we had some people attend the meetings that we needed to and on friday we didn't win the student subunit award, like we thought we should have. NC state won. again. we have no idea what they did to earn the award, but they won. sigh. we did spend some time socializing with some other fish girls and boys.



finally, we got to meet pete the cat (petethecat.com) and becky got her picture taken with him...



Ok, that is probably enough for now...i do not think i have ever made such a large entry...we had a good time, but it is always nice to be home again!

Happy New Year!

happy new year!

i can't believe that things start again next week, friday. the 10th banquet and the start of the new spring semester. i have a poster that i need to do and then also to take it to NO, LA. then at the end of the month is a seminar for school. i have finished my guts, and data entry and now the stats need to be run and then analysed and understood...it never ends, does it?

i also told my sister(-in-law) today that there was a reason that i was not responsive on thanksgiving...the fact that i went to mom's house for 15+ years for thanksgiving and cooked there, etc. that was always fun and we had the misfits over for the meal and some fun...i miss that. i told fonda that once we are more settled in a place, i would like to start that again...invite those who have no other options or just don't want to have other options for thanksgiving.

now, christmas, we truly succeeded in surprising fonda's mom for christmas! i was so happy that she didn't know that we were coming! i am glad we went, but it was hard to do the drive. we drove back to NC on christmas day, and there was next to nothing open for meals...what a pain. we ended up eating at a gas station, it was good food, but it just was not what we wanted, the choices were very limited. but we got home and all is well. the kitties missed us, though jen was watching them, they didn't have a lap to sit on and people to bother/be bothered by. we missed them too.

ok, good new year to all of you out there. hope all is well with you and yours...peace.