Ah Mexico!

Well, Mexico.  I have retrieved the photos I can retrieve after my disastrous experience with Apple, iCloud, and the geniuses at the Apple store, so here goes.  Let’s see what I remember….

When I say that I love Mexico, I suspect that I mean a different Mexico from the one most North Americans love.  They, I think, judging from the people I meet on the plane and at the airport, mean the “resort” Mexico, where you can drink the water, brush your teeth with the water, put toilet paper in the toilet to flush, wash your hair because there is enough water pressure, reliably have trash taken away, and have lots of locals to take care of your every need.  

A perfectly wonderful way to visit Mexico, but probably not a lot different from resorts in Miami, along the Gulf coast or the west coast of the US.

The Mexico I love is the houses we rent in small, very small villages, where we eat most of our meals outside while we watch the cafe owners cook. The staff wash the dishes in the sink, by hand. Nothing fancy in these places except for great, fresh food.  Quite often the restaurants are on the beach.  The literature left in the house told us that the trash was picked up “most mornings” and that the tv and vcr work, but that the area gets “no television.” We could walk everyplace we wanted to go in the village and everyone seemed friendly, although a lot of North Americans seem to have discovered Puerto Morelos, a tiny town on the Caribbean between Cancun and Playa del Carmen.  At times it looked as if we were in a Ft. Myers, FL overflow area.  

We were a block off the Caribbean so that was a frequent destination for walks.  This was our local bar:

Bar on the left.  Massages on the right.

right on the beach.  

The second night we spent of our vacation, this storm headed our way. 

We took our pina coladas, made with fresh coconut milk from coconuts that had fallen on the beach, and walked a block to our house.  It rained, hard, for a couple of hours and then for the rest of our stay, we had perfect weather, no air-conditioning necessary, which was good because the house wasn’t air-conditioned.  

For a side trip we drove halfway west through the Yucatan, and then due north to Rio Lagartos, an even smaller town.  The waters off Rio Lagartos are protected (part of a UNESCO World Heritage site)because they are a great stopover for so many migrating birds.  There is a species of flamingos that winters off the west coast of the Yucatan, and then summers in the waters north of the Yucatan.  We were too early for the huge migration that comes in April and May, but we did see several dozen of the huge, brilliant pink flamingos that had come early this year.  We took a boat trip for a couple of hours at sunrise (yawn...not my best time of day) and saw many more species of birds that we don’t see often at home.  

Rio Lagartos

We stayed in a funny little hotel, the only one in the village, and since it was Valentine’s Day when we arrived, the rooms were staged for the holiday.  I was given the Honeymoon suite on the third floor, and it came complete with these swans

and toilet paper with hearts on it.  I was alone so the ambiance was kind of wasted on me, but the view from my porch wasn’t:

Mangroves in the distance off of Rio Lagartos

I slept really well until the rooster in the lot behind the hotel, where my door led to the outdoor hallway, decided to start crowing at ‘0 dark hundred 0'clock.

BAD, BAD showoff rooster

The drive through the Yucatan to get to and from Rio Lagartos was strange---our GPS, which was worthless, kept telling us to turn right,  But for miles and miles, there was no place to turn right.  It also kept saying “toll road.”  No toll roads at all.  Fortunately there was no way to get lost:  straight west, straight north.  The road, such as it was (infrastructure is not a big priority, or any priority, in a lot of places) went through tiny settlements of Mayan people:

Their homes have been built the same way for centuries.  The Mayan families sleep in them, in hammocks, but live the rest of their lives outside.  There are openings for windows and doors, but most of the time, there are no actual windows or doors.  Cooking, sitting, playing i.e.., living, takes place outdoors.  Unfortunately, the Mayans also live ON the road, and that makes driving through these little settlements dangerous (for them).  In one place there was a little girl, maybe three years old, sitting on the edge of the road as if it were a chair.  The ground dropped off from the road just enough to make the road a comfortable chair height for her.  No one else was around and she was completely oblivious to us. Driving incredibly slowly is the only safe way to get through these ten- or twelve-home settlements.  

The Mayans seem to primarily get around via very old wrecks of bicycles, with children straddling the rear wheel or sitting on the handlebars, on foot, or occasionally, in old cars.  Some had three-wheeled bicycles with large wire containers on the front for packages or people.  It is really a strange juxtaposition to see North Americans in tourist areas on their expensive bicycles: they are in the usual North American biking clothes and have helmets on.  It’s like seeing a kite next to an airplane---the difference is striking.  

There were cisterns on top of cinderblock structures near some of the homes, just as there were on top of homes in Puerto Morelos.  Because rain isn’t dependable I suppose that someone must come with a large truck of water and fill the cisterns in both the town and rural areas, but I never saw that happen so I don’t really know.  (I do know that in a house with multiple faucets, gravity isn't all that when it comes to creating volume and water pressure.) 

Cistern

The black thing on the whitish stucco is the cistern on our house.

I also don’t know what passes for bathrooms and sewers in these Mayan areas.  I think that there might not be any.  The people are so far away from larger towns and cities that I also don’t know what they do to support themselves, unless they just live on what they grow or kill. 

If you listen to the news, you would think that carnage is everywhere in Mexico, but according to the State Department travel alerts, the most dangerous areas are in the northern part of the country, where drugs cross the border illegally and practically non-stop.  So we felt free to walk everywhere, even in the evenings, when we would go to the town square and watch the local teenagers being teenagers:  riding skateboards in the little park.  A few locals mingled with the a few dozen tourists at cafes and in little shops, which were all apparently open until the last patron left.

I went to the tourist areas in Playa del Carmen in order to take a ferry to Cozumel, another tourist attraction.  Terrible places thanks to all the tourists and the businesses they attract.  Crowded, noisy, crowded, noisy, and did I say crowded?

I took a video of our trip out to Cozumel, just in case the ferry sank and we all drowned.  (I had visions of the iPad with its video floating into shore, being discovered, and put on international news stations.) I am apparently only a fair-weather sailor; I was terrified.  The crossing was so rough that an attendant went up and down the aisles handing out barf bags.  Unfortunately, the video I took to show how rough it was disappeared from iCloud when everything else did, and I can’t retrieve it.  I did capture, not intentionally (I was too focussed on our imminent deaths), a woman vomiting into a barf bag, so maybe it’s better the video is gone because I WOULD have shared it with you.  

I hope that the village of Puerto Morelos is spared the development that has taken over Cancun and Playa del Carmen, and thanks to the Meso-American Barrier Reef System, a National Marine Park one hundred meters offshore, perhaps this is possible.  Cruise and cargo ships can’t come inside the coral reefs offshore so all you see from the beach are the small fishing boats that the locals use.  

I like to think I could live there at least part of the year, but there is no LYS, and there also is no mail service.  The only way to get and receive mail is to have it addressed to a "Don Someone," and pay him for each piece of mail you send or receive.  I have no idea how he gets access to the mail.  

NO LYS!!!  No mail service for internet shopping!!!  Impossible.

The view of "downtown Puerto Morelos" from the beach a block from our house.

So I Am Meant to Eat This?

Fringed and Finished

This is my second Annie Scarf (here on Ravelry).  

 

This scarf is made from Tactile Fiber Arts Studio Arcata Lace (silk) and Lang Yarns Baby Alpaca.  It is soft and drapes really well.

And it was, as the Yarn Harlot might say, dead easy!

The Janus Shawl

I love this shawl (JANUS shawl)....really, really love it.  So much so that I wanted it in exactly the colors that are in the shop sample, which isn't this one:

The shop sample is in these colors:

It looks like tortoise shell when it is all worked up.  There was a rumor that the shop didn't have any of the color used in the sample and I despaired.  But suddenly, there they were, lots and lots of skeins of the correct color.  Whew.

It is easy to make, or at least it would be if I didn't make so many mistakes. There is a term "trigger happy" and I realize that what I am is "yarn-over happy." Yarn-overs between a knit stitch and a knit stitch, a knit stitch and a purl stitch, a purl stitch and a purl stitch, and purl stitch and a knit stitch are done differently. And each of the three pattern rows has different yarn-overs and I go a little nutty and just throw in extra loops of yarn hither and yon.  An extra yarn-over means an extra hole and an extra stitch which just does not work in lace....throws the whole pattern off.  Toss in a few ssk's and what I have is a mess to sort out.  I am getting good at sorting out.

And yes, if you have noticed that there is what looks like crochet in this shawl, you are right.  Do I know how to crochet?  Why, not really, thanks for asking.  

But my knit/crochet friend, Lucille, promises to help me with this; she is making the same pattern and is a bit ahead of me.  The pattern is charted and it looks like gibberish to me but thank the baby cheeses, not to her.

(Hi Lucille!!!!)

Well, That Was No Fun

No fun at all.

When I looked at the statement from a credit card this morning, I saw four charges that I had not made.  I don't even carry this card.  It stays in my knitting room and occasionally I use it for some impulsive important purchase from an online company.  But that is pretty rare since I use PayPal for most online shopping.

But there they were:  pizza, towing service, and two mystery charges.  I called the credit card company and they cancelled the charges while they investigate. One mystery charge was for car towing, and the other was for a credit card reader. Just the thing a criminal can make good use of, I imagine.

Two of the charges were listed as having been done through PayPal, but I don't use that particular card with Paypal.  I checked PayPal and there were no such purchases on my account with them.  I called PayPal.  The nice employee assured me that this can't happen with Paypal since they always send an e-mail asking if the attempted charge is legitimate.  But what probably HAD happened is that some businesses allow "temporary" accounts, and people can claim they have an account with PP.  If the punk*ss criminal had attempted to use a credit card that actually is on file with PP to set up a new or temporary account, the online merchant would have had the charge denied.  

So now little-old-me has a crime file # and my very own detective.  And with the help of the internet, I was able to track down the pizza store that took the online order for the pizza.  The manager there gave me the address the pizza was delivered to; it is a local address.  The car-towing service is local as well.  

And here is bad news:  the police officer who took my report said that people using other's credit card information fraudulently quite often use it to BUY information on their next victim.  There are online services that sell this information, pretty cheaply, and criminals sort of piggyback their next victim on the previous victim. 

I am pretty sure how this happened; I have my credit card information on file with a local g*m so that the monthly fee is automatically charged to that account.  It is really the ONLY local access to this card.  I am going there this afternoon, but the police officer told me not to talk to anyone about this identity theft.  They don't want the guilty party to have any advance notice that they are looking for him.  

I hope they get him.  And then tell his Mommy and Daddy (the police assume it is a kid old enough to drive). And then they put him away for a million zillion years.  

Before It Is No More

I was reading on a forum on Ravelry about knitters who still had sweaters they had made decades ago, and it reminded me of one I made in the late 60s, when I was in college.  It took me ten months to make and about ten minutes to ruin.  I did wear it for a few years in between the two events, but when, in my later 20s, I decided I really didn't need to take it to be dry-cleaned, that I could wash it myself in cold water, IN THE WASHING MACHINE, well, that was the end of the sweater as a sweater.

I have taken a few pictures to remember it by, before it becomes a pillow.

The Sweater:

                                                                The Inspection:

What's Under Here?

Must Kill This:

It will soon BE killed, but by me, not by Molly.

I can't believe I was so dumb?  Uninformed?  Young, naive and arrogant?  (This will work because I say it will work.)  All of those, I suppose.

Anyone know of good uses for the sleeves?

Update:

I have spent over 3 1/2 hours this past week with various geniuses at Apple and have finally:

A.  Successfully downloaded Mountain Lion.  I thought I already had, but it turns out that our completely undependable internet service had gone down during the first attempt at downloading and I am not computer savvy to have known that.

B.  Successfully backed up the computer BEFORE I downloaded Mountain Lion.  I thought I already had but it turns out that I am not computer savvy enough to have realized that I hadn't.

As a result of finally being successful, I am now emptying the trash.  I tried to last night, but I kept getting a message saying that I couldn't because "trash is busy emptying trash."

I am not computer savvy enough to understand what it was trying to tell me.

However, even though I am now successfully emptying trash, this is what it is telling me:

I did not put 28, 016 items IN the trash.

I don't know what is going on, but I hope that I will still have all of my photographs when this is finished.

If not, though, I have them backed up.......I hope.

Knittergran's Peeps

Knittergran asked us to apologize for the delay in posting about her wonderful, warm, relaxing trip to Mexico.

Yesterday she had a class at Apple and learned how to do lots of things.  She also downloaded Mountain Lion software because the Genius at Apple showed her how much better her Mac would work with the upgrade.

Knittergran did wonderful, amazing things yesterday...at the store.

And then she came home, upgraded to Mountain Lion, and now she can't do much of anything because iCloud seems to have left the building and because Mountain Lion put all 4700+ photos into ONE  #$%^&*%^ event.  She has to figure out how to sort this all out, and even when she does, all of the original event titles are GONE GONE GONE.

Sorry for the shouting but Knittergran has been doing a lot of shouting and now we are a bit deaf and so we tend, we think, to shout a bit.

The only reason that our picture is here is that Knittergran took the photo with her camera/phone, e-mailed it to her Mac, downloaded it into the downloads.......

Oh, never mind.

AND the Mexico pictures are showing up in her slide show, which they AREN'T supposed to do, and Knittergran can't figure out how that is happening either.

She'll be back as soon as she recovers from yesterday's oh-so-unhelpful session with the #$%^&;*() Genius at Apple.

Poor, poor Knittergran.....

In the Meantime

Hola y'all!

I have just returned from a week in Puerto Morelos, a small fishing village in the Yucatan region of Mexico.  

When I am less bleary-eyed and sleep deprived, I will post more about the village and our adventures, but for now, I will just demonstrate how well I speak Spanish.

Obey speed limits

Don't drive tired. Avoid accidents.

Use your seatbelt.

Don't deface/vandalize signs. (That seems like an invitation to do so)

Eat your vegetables?

I don't know.  

The Pet

My older daughter says that she had always wanted a hedgehog as a pet, so within the past year, she bought one.  It is an odd pet to have; it is nocturnal and prefers to sleep all day.  He (she?) runs on a treadmill in its cage at night.  On Tuesday, before I left Austin, daughter took the hedgehog outside so that she could clean his/her cage.  She put the hedgehog on the lawn and told me that it loved being outside and would scoot around, look for bugs to eat, and maybe try to hide in some shrubs.

This is Wembley when daughter first put him/her on the lawn:

Now for other news.

This structure is a ways off behind the pasture behind my daughter's home.

It's very mysterious.  What is it?  Why is it there?  No one seems to know.  We even found it on Google maps, and there are no clues there either.

Frankly, it looks like Bin Laden's compound to me, and considering that it IS in Texas,  occasionally a home to crazies, I think someone should be investigating it.  I would volunteer but I'm a coward.  And I haven't yet found a road in to that area.  Because I haven't looked for one.  I told you I am a coward.

Now, back to the hedgehog.  This picture is of Wembley after he/she had been outside for about 20 minutes.

It's a very lively, entertaining and exciting pet.  

Gee,thanks.

          From: Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com>

Date: February 1, 2013, 9:04:50 EST
To: jmokeeffe@comcast.net
Subject: [As the Spirit Moves Me] New comment on Hydrangeas and an Air Horn.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Hydrangeas and an Air Horn":

of course like your web-site however you have to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your
posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very bothersome to inform
the truth on the other hand I'll certainly come back again.
my web page > non prescription glasses



Posted by Anonymous to As the Spirit Moves Me at February 1, 2013 at 9:04 A

There are no stupid questions,

just stupid people.

No, not really.  I heard someone say it once and I thought I'd share.

You're welcome.

However, the only stupid questions are the unasked questions, so here goes:
Why is it that we consider that the earth looks like this:

rather than like this?:

Who decided this?

A friend of mine returned recently from Australia and New Zealand, and she told me that she was having trouble adjusting to all the time zone changes and from "being upside down."  Joking, of course.  But who says that those who live below the equator are upside down?  Maybe we are, here in North America.

Is there a scientific reason?  Did more influential people live north of the equator?  More bossy people?

Seems to me it could have gone either way.

Sure is pretty though.

Anonymous Comments

I eliminated the code requirement for comments.  Everyone hates them.  I hate them. But I sure do get some weird stuff:  

Wonderful web site. Lots of helpful information here. I am sending it to some friends ans also sharing in delicious. And certainly, thanks on your effort! Also visit my weblog ... click through the following post on 

Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. 0aJol 

Time is money. 4dWgm  

I do not even know how I finished up right here, but I thought this post used to be good. I don't understand who you're however certainly you are going to a famous blogger in case you are not already. Cheers! My webpage lanautica 

Terrific work! This is the type of info that should be shared across the internet. Disgrace on the search engines for no longer positioning this publish upper! Come on over and talk over with my site . Thanks =) Also visit my webpage ; Como Conquistar A Una Amiga 

Most of these posts then have a list of websites to go to...advertising, I suppose.

Thanks, all you non-human visitors!

Borrowed from Ravelry

Click to embiggen:

Why I Love the Internet

Because it knows EVERYTHING!!!  And it shares with me!

I am finally knitting the i-cord onto the Volt wrap I finished a few months ago.

I didn't know how to pick up stitches to work from the finished sides of the wrap, so I googled (a new verb!  Isn't that nice!) How to pick up stitches for an applied i-cord, or something like that, and up came this video that showed me exactly how to do it.

Then I needed to turn a corner, so I googled something along the lines of How to knit a corner for applied i-cord, and up came this video, showing me exactly how to do it.

So I am i-cording along (not my made up verb but that of the narrator of the video) and it is going well, and certainly more quickly than I expected.

Also, before I even began, I checked out this blog post to see another way of joining the i-cord to the wrap.  Much neater, much quicker.

So I am in love with the internet.

********************************
Now, as a bonus, especially for you non-knitters (shame on you), this is a photo I have borrowed from younger daughter.  It is a billboard in the Los Angeles area:

I'm confused.  Is the current correct response to becoming engaged to use obscenities???

Nice.

Lucky guy.

*******************************
Oh, and while we are talking about verbs (we were, weren't we?), this topic springs to mind because of a conversation older daughter overheard the other day.  There was a mother at ballet practice talking with another mother, and she said that she was so upset that movie-makers had violentized  (I'm not even sure how to spell that) The Hobbit movie.  She was just so tired of everything being violentized.  Now there's a verb.  I wonder if it will catch on.   

My Mink Scarf

or wrap.  Or shawl.  It is seven feet long, so I'm not sure what it qualifies as, but I love it because it is just so soft.....

And that is because it is made from 100% mink yarn that I bought at Stitches South last spring.  I bought a skein for me and one for older daughter, and then over Christmas, I took the one I bought for her back.

What else could I do???  One skein wasn't enough.

This is from the pattern on Ravelry called 100 grammi.  I had started out trying lace with the yarn and was not enjoying it, and I believe my daughter had done the same.  She had frogged hers and so it was all ready for me to use.  (I did replace it with a new skein from the shop.)

For the first time I used a method to join yarns that is especially good for light weights of yarn and lacy projects.  I don't remember who found it and spread the word about it, but it is brilliant:



No more ends to weave in and that is a great help when there really is no place to weave them into.

I loved the simplicity of the pattern and the outcome so much that now I'm looking through my stash to find some suitable yarn to make another one.  But not a seven-foot long one.

Knitting!

And maybe some crocheting.

Just in Case

you have been wondering what I have been up to...but you probably haven't been since you have your own lives and all...I'll tell you.

I have been working on this scarf:

It is called the 100 Grammi cowl, but I added a second skein of yarn and it will be a scarf instead.  It is made from 100% MINK!!!  It's so soft; I can't wait to squish it up and wind it around my neck on a cold day.  It's been cold---for Georgia---and I hope it lasts just a few more days.  I had to take borrow back the skein of mink I bought for older daughter, but I have already replaced it with a skein of 100% mink, navy blue (her request).  I did catch Baxter playing with it but I rescued it in time.

On Friday I made a half portion of Pioneer Woman's Perfect Potato Soup, and it is delicious.  The full recipe is for 12 people---YIKES---but as she cooks for a minimum of six people and I usually cook for a maximum of two, I thought that six portions were enough.  

I used a submersible blender to chop up all the vegetables in it and the soup was Perfect!  Just as PW's recipe promises.

Well, this is exciting---I bought a re-usable coffee cup from Starbucks.  It costs $1.00 and each time I use it, I get $.10 off the price of my beverage.  If I remember to carry the cup in the car with me.

In the bad news department, the moths got to my winter coat---AGAIN.  I followed all instructions to avoid this---clean the coat, put a cedar block in the closet, keep a light on 24/7 in the closet, and put lavender in the closet.  But the coat is toast.

I am not happy.

I have learned that I should not follow Pioneer Woman's stocking up list.  Again, she cooks for at least six people, and I cook for two.  The result is that stuff goes bad before I use it.

I can't not mention Christmas!!!  We went to older daughter's home in Austin and spent a lot of time with all of her family as well as with my younger daughter and her boyfriend from LA.  A great time was had by all, and as my grandson said when he came downstairs on Christmas morning and saw the gifts under the tree:  It worked!

Ella (12), Elizabeth (4), Lily (almost 10) and Campbell (6)

Yes, Christmas worked again this year---a wonderful time with family.  :-)

Happy New Year, Y'all!

And if you are looking for a good thing to do this year, check out this site and consider registering to be a stem cell/bone marrow donor.  It only takes a cheek swab, and maybe you'll match someone looking for a donor!

However, apparently you need to be 60 years young or younger---I'm not saying I'm old or anything, but they don't want my bone marrow.  I'm still using it.... so what the ???

Anyway, as Martha Stewart (she's not taking my calls) might say:  It's a good thing.

Really, Really Random Ramblings

Younger daughter trapped in a suddenly stopped elevator
in Los Angeles.  She doesn't look too stressed.
She was rescued in 15 minutes.

This could be Molly in our Christmas tree.
But it's not.
We don't have a tree.

This could be Baxter in our Christmas tree.
It's not.
We don't have a Christmas tree.

I miss having a tree.
Maybe next year.

I have discovered knitting mittens!  They are fun to knit---as much fun as socks and much better in the immediate gratification category.  

And because I am, as always, generous, I am sharing this um...singer with you:

Florence Foster Jenkins (July 19, 1868 – November 26, 1944) was a wealthy woman who truly believed that she was gifted singer.  She hired out Carnegie Hall, orchestras, and pianists to accompany her.  She had records made.

Audiences attended her concerts to ridicule her, but on she sang.  She is reported to have said: People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing.

I think she is a pretty good example of determination...and denial.

Merry Christmas Y'all!

I just heard on NBC that 40% of legal gun sales do not require background checks.  So maybe that is why when I turned on the noon news, I got this:

I hear that we have plenty of gun laws, but apparently, common sense is not a part of them.

Finished Mitts

I have been knitting, but after sort of finishing the Volt shawl, I did one needlepoint project and then these fingerless mitts.

They are knit with Malabrigo Tosh Vintage (I LOVE Tosh Vintage) and from the pattern One Cable Knits.  Not a creative name, but accurate.

It Ain't Braggin' if it's True, part 2

OK, so it turns out that my last post wasn't entirely true.  I will pass along to you, dear readers, what I have learned from my experience.

Once you have finished what you consider to be your Christmas shopping, wrapping and shipping, DO NOT, under any circumstances, go into even one more store.  Possibly the grocery store isn't even safe.

Because I went to Lowes, the home improvement store that sells soil, plants, toilets, wiring, and tools I can't even identify, I have this package to mail.

What's inside that could possibly be a gift for my 4-year old granddaughter? That I found at Lowes?

This:

I went to Lowe's looking for a wreath, which I did not get because all of theirs were raining needles and would not last until Christmas, and this ornament jumped out at me.   Elizabeth loves, loves, loves all things Hello Kitty and so of course I thought--- Elizabeth MUST have this. 

Now I am off to the post office to mail it.  

NO MORE STORES.  

My apologies to anyone in this house who might want to eat home-cooked meals between now and Christmas.  Publix and Kroger and especially Fresh Market are now off limits.  Because apparently no place, not even a home-improvement store, is safe.

It Ain't Braggin' if it's True

I am finished with Christmas preparations.

Dh and I are relaxing. Don't we look cheerful!!?? Well, we are because all of the gifts are purchased, wrapped and shipped.  According to the good people at the UPS store, they will all arrive at their destinations on Thursday.

BOOM!  Finished.

You may worship and adore me.

I'll stop now.

A Public Service

I have written before about my problem with scarves---but now I've found this!

Evenings in Paris with Old Lady Arms

My Texas daughter has spent much too much time looking through weird catalogs, considering the weird things for sale.  The rest of the family hopes she puts them in the recycling bin before bad things happen.

However, I just received a copy of the Vermont Country Store catalog and I found a couple of memories.  First of all, there is this:

What a miracle!!!  Just 30 minutes a day with these wraps and double chins and jiggly arms are gone!

And jiggly arms remind me of my sister:

She is the child on the left.  Isn't she cute?  Red hair, freckles.  And everyone who saw her said,"Isn't she cute?"  I heard this over and over and over...

We were at our elementary school one day so that my mother and my sister's teacher could discuss something.  (Probably how cute she was........)

Suddenly my sister said to her teacher, "My sister wants to know what that stuff is that hangs down from your arm."  Oh, great.  Implicate me.  I am sure I had wondered nothing of the sort.  I was a kind child.

My mother was suitably horrified.  And my sister wasn't so cute right then.

Now on to something sort of related.

We only had one "department" store - a dime store - in the town I grew up in and it sold Evening in Paris perfume. Thanks to how cheap it was and how many students bought it at Christmas time for their teachers, they must have sold a lot of it.  I don't remember what it smelled like, but that cobalt blue bottle with the fancy silver label indicated to us that it was VERY special stuff.  

If the teachers held on to their stash of this perfume (and they are still alive), I guess they could sell it for a nice sum now; the current price is $49.00.

Maybe my daughter can find some on Ebay in case her children need teacher gifts.

Finished!

Except for an uncountable number of stitches to make the chartreuse i-cord around the entire perimeter of the wrap.

2 x 495 + 2 x ? = I don't want to know.

It's Official

This man, actor Channing Tatum, has been selected by People Magazine as 2012's Sexiest Man Alive.  I don't know who he is.  I've heard the name, but I thought it was the name of an actress.

I am officially old.

On an Old Wreck

Of a car, this would be funny or ironic or cool. On anything else, it seems like bragging. (I have no idea what this car is.)