I love this blog and todays post is too funny, you must check it out.

Second - my sister’s blog (pic of me)

I meant to add this too.  The way to make the perfect egg salad for a picnic at the beach.

Perfect egg salad starts with perfectly hard boiled eggs.  Fill a pot with cold water and add the eggs (4 large eggs will make 2 sandwiches).  Make sure the water covers the eggs and place a lid on the pot.  Heat on high until it just comes to a rolling boil then turn off the heat and remove the pan from the burner.  Leave the eggs covered for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes drain and fill with cold water, remove shells.

Chop the eggs into a bowl

Add

1 tbsp of finely diced sweet onion

Celery Salt and Pepper to taste

4 large green olives, finely chopped

1 pinch of dry mustard

a little less than a 1/4 of real mayonaise.

Add a little fresh lettuce and a freshly sliced tomato (from your garden) to the sandwich and voila - yummy egg salad.

I don’t even know where 2007 went and now it’s July 2008 already!?  This just cannot be.  Time is flying by and I feel like I am standing still.

Must be the Paxil…

I have been busy doing lots of fiber ordering and dyeing because I joined a Ravelry Fiber Swap.  It should be fun… unfortunately I cannot post pictures or descriptions of what I’ve been doing to what or with whom because I don’t want to give any hints to my swap buddies.

I have also been knitting… frogging and reknitting., then refrogging again.  I haven’t had much knitting mojo for awhile so I thought if I joined another KAL it just might jump start my mojo.  So I I am currently working on the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl.  So far I’ve knit to Clue 2 twice.  I frogged it because I decided I liked the A chart better.

This is actually a really cool KAL - the shawl had a total of 4 clues but each clue had 4 choices so there are a lot of variations each making a unique shawl - that and it’s a circular shawl too.

Tonight the Westford Spinning group is gathering on the Westford commons during the Farmer’s Market to demo spinning.  We are not allowed to ’sell’ but that does not mean we cannot give out cards for spinning lessons and pointing to our etsy shops now does it?  I hope something starts to give because things are not moving either through etsy or through the studio right now.  I understand it’s the economy and the weather.  Apparently 90F heat with 70% humidity isn’t conducive to playing with wool and other fiber.  However, my tomato plants are loving it along with the Cockadoodle Poo Organic Potting Soil they are planted in.  It’s great stuff and safe around kids and pets.  I got several bags of this “sheeite” at Agway.

Next week I will be taking the entire week off added to the 4th of July long weekend, it should be a nice long rest, along with lots of house cleaning and chores that desperately need to be done, and at least a day or two at the beach.  I would love to go camping, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards right now.  Instead I will probably hang out and play up at the studio, so if anyone has time off that week and it happens to be a rainy day and you want to come and play give me a call.

Then it’s four days back to work and another long weekend and week off.  Then I will be wondering where the hell July went.

Was tagged by Liz for the book challenge whatever thingie…

The Rules:

Pick up the nearest book.
Open on page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

This is going to be so boring since I am at work and only have manuals and other boring technical books surrounding me.

Hmmm Let’s pick Nortel Networks Troubleshooting and Optimization Manual, by Ragho Mahalingam.

As with the configuration file, all other critical file system contents should be backed up to a server. Using either FTP or TFTP (Routers Files Manager), all file system contents can be copied to a workstation for future reference and, if necessary, immediate recovery. Unforeseen issues may require you to abort a software upgrade, in which case you can use the backup copy of the current file system to restore the system.

Hmmm good advice for any computer system or hardware wouldn’t you say?  I’m not sure who has done this and who hasn’t so if you want to play, consider yourself tagged.

I’ve actually been keeping busy between the real boring work and playing in the studio with all the dyes and fibers as well as a little knitting and spinning.

This past weekend I spent all day Saturday in the studio, dyeing up some lovely sweet grass targee, and some merino/silk blend as well as some real and faux cashmere. I recently joined a fiber swap in Ravelry.com - it should be fun and figured I would get some stuff dyed up ahead of time.

I would share some photos, but I hung it all out to dry on the clothes line and it’s been raining everyday since then. Hopefully today it should finally be dry.

I am also knitting scarves from some silk, Cindy and I dyed a few weeks ago. We are just knitting up Q&D lace scarves to hopefully sell during Quilt Week and Lowell Open Studios in September. They are unfortunately boring and I am dying to start the Goddess Knit Anniversary Mystery Shawl - I am already two clues behind, and she’s only published two clues so far.

Darling Daughter had her last final this morning and it’s her last day of school.

Things are going much better now that she is out of the ‘bad’ crowd.  I am feeling a bit better about having her home this summer.  I still wish she would get a job!

I think I mentioned that my mom broke her left wrist a few weeks ago, so she’s been kind of down.  Between Dad’s death, trying to get a handle on being single and now a broken arm, she’s been pretty testy too.  So I invited her to come up for dinner Sunday and she ended up showing up at my house at 9:00 AM!

So I made her come out with me to shop for tomato plants, herbs and flowers for the window boxes.

I was really pleased with the way the window boxes came out.  I just love Lobelia, and the miniature petunias.  I think the chartreuse vines set off the purples perfectly.

I put a couple of cherry tomato plants into large containers ans surrounded them with basil.  I did another large container with more herbs (rosemary, cilantro, chive, parsley, more basil.  You can never have too much fresh basil in the summer!

My honeysuckle vine around the door is in full bloom and the scent is intoxicating.  I’ve been leaving the doors open in the backroom and between the roses, peonies and the honeysuckle it smells just like summer!  Now if it would just stop raining and let the sun come out.

I could really use a long vacation.  Fortunately I am taking the week after the fourth of July off, then the third week in July when my brother comes out with Jeffrey.   Then it’s off to the gathering of the clan in Upstate New York to the camp in Mount Upton.  I need to start practicing my Pitch game soon.

I’ve been tagged for a meme by Jen… so here you go.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago I was working in the same place I am now - different company though after a buyout.  I cannot believe I managed to survive all the layoffs and changes, but here I am.  I’m also still in the same house, so not much has changed in the past 10 years, just a little older but not much wiser.

2. What are 5 things on my TO-DO list for today?

Wish David a Happy Birthday

Meet with my therapist

Do some laundry

Finish up some open cases at work

Finish knitting the silk scarf I am working on

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Pastries are my down fall so I try to avoid them

Potato Chips - the greasy, salty kind

My homemade Hummus and pita chips

My homemade salsa (must make more salsa)

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Retire immediately, send the DD to boarding school, buy a Victorian house with a wrap around porch on the beach, pay off my brother’s mortgage, open a little fiber studio/shop near my new house, and travel around the world.

5. Places I have lived:

Ithaca, NY

Niagara Falls, NY

Vestal, NY

Elizabeth, NJ

Sudbury, MA

Worthing, UK

6. Jobs I have had:

Cashier in a grocery store

Cocktail Waitress

Retail in a Ski Shop

Receptionist

Apple Computer Trainer

I’m not sure who’s been tagged and who hasn’t so let’s tag Nancy and Brian - have fun guys I hope your answers are more exciting than mine!

Network Engineer

I  apologize for being a bad blogger.  A lot has been going on between the teenager-from-hell and my Mom who has turned into Widowzilla, I’m still trying to process my Dad’s death.  I’m trying not to think about Father’s Day this coming weekend.

But you don’t want to hear about whoaisme, and I don’t want to go there either so I will leave you with this escapade.

As I mentioned in an earlier post a brazen hussy of a squirrel was coming up from the basement and eating the kitty food.  This brazen hussy of a squirrel didn’t care one bit that I was sitting right at the kitchen table at the time either.

You will also remember that my weeny cats were afraid of this squirrel, so what is a homeowner to do?  Trap it…  So feeling in a good mood I went to the local hardware store and picked up a Havaheart trap - Squirrel Size for $39.  Rat traps would have been cheaper, but I couldn’t deal with the ewwwie factor.   I took the trap home and found that putting it together was like folding complicated origami - we eventually figured it out, got it baited with peanut butter… nothing happened.  So the next day we baited it with cat food - squirrel liked that just fine.   He even managed to clean out every single piece from inside the trap.  For some reason the trap mechanism on the new trap is a bit tight, as in the squirrel would have had to have been at least 30 lbs to trip it.  But at the rate he was cleaning out the cat food bowl it was only a matter of time.

We tried all kinds of things for several days,  Finally I borrowed an older trap that had a looser mechanism. Actually it had a hair trigger, and it took some time to get it loaded and set.  But within 5 minutes WHAM!

Scared the heck out of me and the cats who went running upstairs to hide under the beds.  Big Weenies!

So I did as the directions stated - approached the cage quietly and slowly,  but the damn thing still lunged at me.  I finally managed to pick up the cage and tossed a sweatshirt over it.  I ran out the car with it and stuck it in the back seat.  The squirrel was freaking, I was freaking - the cats were freaked.

So now what do I do with it?  I jump in the car and start to drive,  all the time the squirrel is obviously panicking as I am.  So I quick call the first friend in my cellphone list Alicia…  she doesn’t answer but I leave her a message on her voice mail and head to her house which is about 3 miles from my house.  I figure that is far enough away to dump the squirrel.  All the time I am praying that someone is home.

As I pull into her driveway, she and her daughter are waiting for me and laughing their butts off.  Apparently my voice mail message was hysterically funny.

So we get the cage out of the car and Alicia managed to get the cage open.  The squirrel shot out the cage and headed straight for the woods.

I thanked them profusely and returned home for a Margarita and a nap.

——–

Obligatory knitting update - I am working on knitting some silk scarves to add to the etsy shop.  Stay tuned.

I was just sitting at the kitchen table catching up on emails, when I heard munching coming from the cat dish.  The only problem was both cats were lying on the couch… slugs!

So I turned to see a squirrel that had come up from the basement!  I keep the cat boxes in the basement, thus the basement door is always open.

So I grabbed the cat most likely to catch it (Miss Pickles) shoved her down the stairs and shut the door.  She took off after it, but 5 minutes later she was whining at the door…  WTF?

I apparently have weeny cats….

Is it too much to expect a rodent free home with two cats living here?  I think not!

So, do I open the bulk head and invite in more squirrels or hope for a cat solution to the problem?  I will be taking the cat food up and putting it away for the night…  no food for cats until dead squirrel carcass shows up.

Perhaps some of you have seen this already but I hadn’t so I thought I would share it with you.

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years.
They had shared everything. They had talked about everything.
They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little
old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had
cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but
one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said
she would not recover.
In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took
down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside.
She agreed that it was time that he should know what was
in the box. When he opened it, he found two knitted dolls
and a stack of money totaling $95,000.
He asked her about the contents. ‘When we were to be married,’
she said, ‘ my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage
was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you,
I should just keep quiet and knit a doll.’
The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two
precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two
times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with
happiness.
‘Honey,’ he said, ‘that explains the doll, but what about all of this money?
Where did it come from?’
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘that’s the money I made from selling the dolls.’

A Prayer…….

Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man;
Love to forgive him, and Patience for his moods.
Because Lord, if I pray for Strength,
I’ll beat him to death, because I don’t have time to knit.

Hmmm maybe I should start knitting dolls and selling them everytime DD pisses me off.

Thank you everyone for your warm expressions of sympathy. They really do help. Dad’s memorial service was on Saturday. The sun was out, and it was a beautiful day. I also think it was fitting that it also just happened to be Armed Forces Day. He would have like that. The church was standing room only and there were over 200 people at the luncheon afterwards. It was lovely and perfectly orchestrated by Mom.

I have to say that over the past week, as we pulled together pictures and photos, and spoke to old friends that we hadn’t seen or heard from in eons, we did a lot more laughing than crying.

DD pulled some really horrible stuff on my during this past week… all I can say is I am currently looking for Wilderness Boot Camps for Girls Only to send her to this summer… seriously.

Since I couldn’t really think about anything hard, but needed to keep my hands busy I have almost a pair of socks completed. I really should have been working on my shawl, but I just couldn’t think that hard all week.

Mom had us running back and forth and screaming at people including us. We realized that she was tired and grieving in her own way, but my sister and I were <this> close to duct taping her up and tossing her into the back seat of my cousin Jen’s car so that we could get a reprieve this week.

Cindy and I also decided that if Mom ever needs to go into a nursing home that she is going to love Albuquerque.

All I can say it thank the gods for overly developed coping skills, this past week would have pushed a lesser person right off the deep end.

Now we just have the gathering of the clan to look forward to. At least that isn’t until July so I have plenty of time to squeeze in some therapy, tequila and lots of knitting. I’m going to let my cousin Tom handle these arrangements with Mom - just a little Military Interment Service at the Family cemetery in upstate NY… should be a breeze.

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”

I’ve been agonizing how to say goodbye to the person who was always there when we faltered, and who always provided us with the port in the storm.

He gave us a wonderful life. He gave us a wonderful family, my mom Shirley, his wife of almost 56 years, my sister Cindy, brother James, and of course his beloved grandkids, Kristine, Eric, Grace and Jeffery Robert.

How do you say goodbye to a man who left a long trail of memories that span over more than 81 years.

Robert Harold Chantler was born in Oneonta, New York August 29, 1926 to Harold and Bessie Chantler. His sister Gladys was 10 years older so although she often served as a surrogate Mom, they enjoyed a very close loving relationship. He grew up during the depression in Sidney, NY and at the age of 17 he convinced his mother to give her permission for her only son to join the US Navy during WWII, where he served on the USS Heywood L. Edwards, DD663

My sister loved this photo and as a little girl would always ask to see the picture of Dad with the “bar of soap” on his head.

When he returned after serving for 19 months in the Pacific, he finished High School and went on to Ithaca College on the GI Bill. This is where he met and married my Mom.

As kids we spent every holiday and most Sunday afternoons, with the Chantler clan and there was always lots of good food, lots of card playing and lots and lots of laughter and always lots of love.

Dad lived and loved with great passion mixed with lots of humor.

I don’t think I can ever remember a time where Dad couldn’t find humor in any situation, and often it was irreverent, which may explain how Dad saw life, with optimism and humor. There were few things in life that Dad didn’t love including mischief and mayhem. He was the first one you would suspect if you became the victim of one of his practical jokes. He was never malicious, and it was always in good fun. If you ever managed to pull one off on him, which was rare, he always laughed the hardest and loudest. All while planning his next move.

How do you say goodbye to one of the strongest people I’ve ever known, I only remember seeing him cry once and that was when my brother James became very ill as a newborn, of course at the time I thought it was because I had broken the buckle on my new shoes. But Dad was there day and night, sometimes he seemed to be every where at once, like when my sister was born and she and my mom were in one hospital, and I just happened to be sick with pneumonia in another hospital. Poor Dad spent at least a week, just running back and forth from hospital to hospital with little or no sleep.
How to say goodbye to the Dad who taught me everything I ever needed to know. I remember one day when I was around 8 or 9 I ran home crying because one of the neighborhood kids had pushed me off a swing. He looked me in the eye, showed me how to make a proper fist, and sent me off to ‘take the swing back’. I did.

Dad had many careers in his life, and because of this we moved a lot. Like gypsies, Dad would move to a new job, and Mom would be the one to pack us up and drive to the new location with three kids and a dog in tow. Because we moved so much, I always assumed that it was those experiences that taught us how to make friends fast. But I see now that it wasn’t the moves, it was probably a gene we got from Dad.

Although he had many jobs that took him all over the world, I think his most exciting one when he became the Program Manager for the Apollo Lunar Landing Module (LEM) simulator. That simulator became crucial in helping to get the men of Apollo 13 back safe and sound.
I am so honored that I was able share with my sister and mom, Dad’s final journey, to be there and to be able to hear him say I love you sweetie just one more time.

But like Winston Churchill I know he was prepared to meet his Maker, but I am not so sure his Maker is ready to meet him.

As I started trying to pull this together I came upon this obscure line from Hamlet

“He was a man, Take him for his all, I shall not look upon his like again.”

I love you too Dad.

If you feel so inclined please send a donation to the Fisher House Foundation, Inc.

]]> http://witchypoo.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/my-dad/feed/ witchypoo http://witchypoo.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/power-to-the-people/ http://witchypoo.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/power-to-the-people/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 18:35:23 +0000 witchypoo http://witchypoo.wordpress.com/?p=760

It’s amazing what the power of positive energy can do.  Thank you all for sending all that get better energy to my Dad.  He is not only home from the hospital but up and about and feeling like his old self.  I guess at 82 feeling like your ‘old’ self beats the alternatives.

Mom is still heading to PA Friday and returning early on Sunday morning, but neither of them seem to think Dad needs any supervision, other than having the neighbors occasionally check on him.  My sister and still plan on checking in by phone and we plan on going down to have dinner with him on Saturday.  There is still a chance that this can all change at the drop of a hat, but right now it looks like the NH Sheep and Wool is back on!  YAHOO!

So keeping my fingers crossed, right now the plan is to get up there early for the opening, check out the pot luck picnic lunch - although I probably won’t be bringing any pot to share, nor will I be staying for lunch, I will just stop and say hello to everyone.  Then head out early so I can get home and get some stuff done before Sis and I head down to Dad’s.

I cannot stay long there either because if I am gone too long the house quickly gets overrun with teenagers.  They are harder to get rid of than roaches I swear and a lot more destructive.

Darling Daughter has decided she hates me and doesn’t want to live with me anymore and at first i was hurt.  But at this point I told her if she can find a responsible adult that wants to take her I’ll talk.  LOL! Like that is going to happen.  But just in case there is a responsible adult reading this blog that really wants a bipolar, depressed, hormone raging, OCD, Hoarding teenager, drop me a line, we’ll talk.

And the therapists all wonder why I have over developed coping skills

Obligatory knitting content…

I have finished all but the buttons on the BSJ - still looking for something that works.

I have started a pair of plain stockinette socks hoping to get my sock mojo back.

I haven’t touched the lace shawl, but I did join another Goddess Mystery Shawl KAL.  I know I need that like I need another ball of sock yarn but what the heck.

As of next month I will be officially part of the Studio on Western Avenue, paying real rent.  Cindy and I have lots of plans to organize it and make some nice ‘retail’ space right in the studio.  It’s not great for retail, so if you are so inclined you can check out some of the fiberlicious stuff that is available by clicking on the link in the sidebar.

Oh and another upcoming fiber event that I will most likely be attending is the Annual Colonial Spinning Bee.  I am planning on bringing some of my hand dyed fibers to sell so I hope to see some of you there.