Thursday, June 30, 2005

The BBC Philharmonic Does Beethoven
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The BBC Philharmonic challenged themselves to produce all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies, and broadcast them over the course of 6 days. Then they went and made them temporarily available for download so everyone can enjoy them. The BBC converted the symphonies into mp3s; each symphony was available for 1 week.

We already had symphonies 5 and 9 -although 9 was an incomplete version. (that's what ya get for buying cheap cd's) But now we have them all. The hubby-man has been listening to them before bed each night. We just listened to the 9th symphony.

wow.

I mean... wow.

The music just reaches inside you, grabs your soul; and when the music stops you hurt.

Mind you, Beethoven is *not* my favorite famous old composer. That honor is reserved for Mozart. Because Mozart's music fills you with sound. It's complete.
sigh. Mozart.

My favorite of his works is "Requiem in D Minor". He died before it was finished, and his students undoubtedly fiddled with it, but there are parts that are pure Mozart. They shine through the piece; and I love it.
If You're Looking

for juicy stuff, you won't find it here. Yes, someone wrote about me on their blog. I'm aware of it.

Instead I'm going to blog about my day.
I took my sister in law to the zoo, along with my son, and we hiked all over the place. We were there for 6 hours. I'd brought my new cane along in case I might need it. Boy, am I glad I did! Because I put it to good use.

I have a moderate sunburn, even though the zoo has a lot of shade. It was worth it because I got to spend time with my sister in law. The zoo has a new thing. For $10 you can buy a wristband that gets you into all the not-free attractions. (The St. Louis Zoo has free admission) So we rode the train, saw a movie, went on the new carousel, visited the insectorium, and took a virtual reality cruise across a volcanic island.
This is all stuff I never would have done on my own.
We also looked at lions and tigers and bears. The children's zoo (another wristband freebie)has a naked mole rat display. I didn't know they were so tiny. My sister in law has her P.H.D. in biology, and she taught us a lot today.

Yesterday was spent at a big to-do for my (step?)father in law. It was kind of strange to sit near people I've seen on TV. I don't want to talk too much about my (step)father in law. He's an amazing man, but he's also a rather private man. I'm glad that I have the good fortune of knowing him.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

What's Going On
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My in-laws are in town this week. Yay! They're truly wonderful people.
We're going to a celebratory thing today. I'll post more later.

Friday, June 24, 2005

I'm watching

this fire. Wow.
My Very Interesting Day
.
Chaos sometimes hits in clumps, and when She does it makes for blog posts like this.

It started with a phone call 10 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I had asked Amy to call me and remind me that I'd be helping her move a sofa. I didn't specify when. But that was ok. It got me out of bed. I made coffee, knit a bit, cleaned some... the usual stuff. Then Sarah, co-owner of HomeKrafts called. She wanted to pick up her shea butter order. Oops! I hadn't labeled them yet. I told her so, and she was cool with that. She'd be by in about half an hour. I grabbed some labels and went to stick 'em on the neatly stacked tubs on the counter. I opened the top one, just to be sure; and it was green inside. Darn. I had 17 tubs of unlabelled shea with comfrey and lavender. Which meant the box full of unlabelled tubs must hold the pure shea, yes? No. It held more shea with comfrey etc.
(I have no memory of the first half of June. Since Quinn passed away, those two weeks are a black hole for me. I can't imagine how hard -unbearable, really- it is for his parents.)

Ok. No biggie. I still have 25 minutes before Sarah shows. I'll just call her cell phone, tell her what's up, and drop the butter off before I go sofa-moving. Except her cell number isn't on the caller ID. We'd had a power outage the week before and lost all the old numbers. I started melting shea butter, made sure the mixer was clean, and counted out butter tubs. I wouldn't have them done when she got here, but I could throw in a free comfrey oil to make up for the hassle.
The doorbell rings as I'm pouring liquid shea into the mixing bowl. It was Sarah. She was completely understanding, except that she had to be somewhere at 6 pm. How perfect! I had to be moving a couch at 6! I finished the butter and delivered it at 5:20.

On to the couch moving episode.
Traffic was good, I was 3 minutes early. Yay! We chatted until Amy's hubby arrived, and then we played math games about how to move a couch around corners.
Let me just say, that any man who can remove 2 doors and a light fixture, while wearing a tie, and come out looking barely mussed... is HOT. Oh yeah. Guys, that is what a woman wants.
Once the couch was safely installed in the back of the truck, we said our goodbyes and prepared to caravan to Amy's house. Hubby leading, me in the middle, Amy being the caboose.
That worked for all of 5 minutes.
You would think that a man who can take a door off it's hinges would know how to be followed. (sigh)
I lost him at the second stoplight. Amy's car was facing the wrong way, so she had to turn around before she could get behind us. I tried to drive slowly so she could catch up, but I never saw her. I figured, "That's ok. I've been to her house 2 or 3 times. If I get on the highway, I can find the right exit."
Which I did. Sort of. Except that I was hungry. Really hungry. What with the knitting and cleaning and shea butter making, I hadn't eaten since breakfast. There was a 10 hour gap between me and calories, I was driving a sofa around Jefferson county, and I couldn't think straight.
I decided to find a pay phone, call for directions, and get some food.
After driving around for a bit, I encountered the ultra-mega-monster-strip-mall that Amy and I had shopped at last month. "Hey! This looks familiar!" I thought. With 8 anchor stores, somebody must have a pay phone.
So the sofa and I crept past all the stores, looking in each for a phone. I couldn't find one. So I pulled up in front of Home Depot and asked the guy with the name tag, "Hey Steve! Where can I find a pay phone?"
He stared at me blankly. I said, "Heh. I left my cell phone at home, and I'm lost. Can you point me to a phone?"
Ah. Now he understood. A damsel in distress. He turned around slowly, looking at the stores and said, "Uh... They took out that one..."
Great. Just friggin' great. 40 stores and one pay phone, which has been removed due to lack of use.
Steve brightened and said, "There's a Mobil station down the road. They still have a pay phone!"
I thanked him graciously, gave him a smile, and went down the road. Sure enough, within a quarter of a mile, I found the Mobil station. And next to it was a fast food place! I could eat and regain my sanity! But first, the phone call. I pulled up to the phone and opened my purse, and my wallet wasn't there.
I almost cried.
The truck has a change holder, so I grabbed what was there: 3 quarters, 2 dimes and 4 nickels. I can make 2 calls. Just what I need. One to call the hubby-man for Amy's number, and one to call Amy. I dropped in 50 cents, dialed home, and got a message that I couldn't call St. Louis. It was long distance. Then the damn phone ate my money and wouldn't give it back. I paid 50 cents to be told I was too far from home to get help.
Arrrgh!
I slammed the phone back in it's cradle and went home.
So I have a sofa sitting in the back of my truck.

On the flip side: Amy arrived home to see her hubby watering the lawn and said, "Where's Sharon?" And he immediately turned off the water and went looking for me. Good man.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Bad Poetry
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I'm not a fan of bad poetry. Nevertheless, I thought up this awful free-form poem while I was trying to go to sleep:

We should all be a little bit
More like Elvis
Shaking our pelvis
To our own rhythm
As we dance and sing
Our way through life

And then when we're old
And mostly forgotten
We can die on the toilet
So when our mortal coil releases
in that final purge of waste
All you'd have to do is flush

See? Awful.
These are the tings that go through my mind late at night. Thanks for sharing my pain.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

I Secretly Read Knitting Blogs
.
Not very often, or I start having stash envy. Or worse yet, completed project envy.
I've been knitting since December and my total number of completed objects is:
Zero.

On the bright side, I have a number of demolished objects to be proud of. There was the skien of blue yarn that was almost a sweater sleeve, until Hunter cut his paw and bled all over it. There are a bunch of swatches knit with embroidery floss, all of them crooked and none of them the same size. There's a glittery gold um... thing, made when I was playing with increases and decreases. Oh! And my favorite! The variegated brown hat with kitten ears, that I tried to make for Chasmyn's baby to be. I knit for days, ripped it out and started over; knit for a week ripped it out and started over; knit until I had a hat; picked out the abundance of black cat hairs that I had knit into the hat along with the yarn... (sigh) Then I realized I had no idea how to add the ears.
So I stuffed it with catnip, tied the end closed, and gave the kitties a new toy.

Hey, wait! That means my completed projects number ONE!
Ha!

Anyway, go visit the Yarn Harlot for a great read. Then visit Knitters Without Borders. Consider doing without one thing this week, and donating the money to Doctors Without Borders. I don't need that $6 tin of stitch markers. I can use those 4mm jumprings I've had lying around since 1994.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Rash Behaviour
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It started on the inside of my upper right arm. Then it spread down to my wrist.
The next day it was on my left arm, too.
Tonight it's on my neck and thighs.
It's creeping up my jaw as I type.
I'm slowly being consumed by a 1950's movie monster.

THE RASH!
-no one knows where it came from
-no one knows how to stop it
-shea butter soothes the itching, but the next day it's back
-and bigger than ever

THE RASH!
In 3-D bump-O-vision!

(sigh) I need some oatmeal and a bigger bathtub.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Wrong
.

Sometimes I wonder if there are so many wrongs being committed in America, that people just can't see them anymore. There are two bits of news that I'm going to rant about here... skip 'em if you wish.

1. Child welfare officials took a 12-year-old cancer patient from her parents' custody, accusing them of blocking her radiation treatment. They say their daughter's cancer is in remission and they object to the radiation following a round of chemotherapy. Katie was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease, a cancer of the lymph system, in January.
A Driscoll Children's Hospital pediatric oncologist quoted in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times said standard protocol for children in advanced stages is to complete chemotherapy and radiation therapy, with blood transfusions, and that halting such treatment increases the risk of death.
Authorities gained temporary custody of the girl after receiving an anonymous tip. Her father was arrested on charges of interfering with child custody and was released Monday after posting $50,000 bond. Their three sons were also taken from them and placed in a foster home.
The couple, members of the Church of God, have said they oppose blood transfusions unless they were from Katie's mother. But the couple's attorney, Daniel Horne, said religion wasn't at issue in the fight. Rather, they say doctors have not answered questions about radiation side effects. "This issue is about parental rights, not about religious rights," Horne said. "They just want to be informed of her treatment."
In a videotaped statement recorded by her parents, Katie said she's feeling better. "I don't need radiation treatment. And nobody asked me what I wanted. It's my body," she said.

The latest rounds of tests show the Hodgkins has returned (or never left)and the family has agreed to another round of chemo. They are still resistant to radiation treatments. My question is, when did it become ok to take away all your children because you choose to reject a potentially harmful treatment for one of them? My mom was given a choice about her radiation treatments for breast cancer. She was told that it could increase her survival rate by 5%. She chose the radiation. But it was her choice. The state didn't force her.

2. EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. A group of black contractors that had threatened to shut down part of Interstate 64 has reached a deal with the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The Metro East Black Contractors Organization had planned the protest because members contend minority subcontractors weren't getting a large enough slice of highway construction projects.
Illinois Transportation Secretary Tim Martin met twice with the group. And he says he's committed to spending two (M) million dollars on minority job training.
Martin says I-DOT also will draft a five-year plan for boosting minority participation in multi(M)million-dollar highway projects, with input from contractors and union leaders,
Members of the contractors group now say they have no plans to carry out their threat to close Interstate 64.

Maybe I'm missing something here... But the problem with minority contractors and subcontractors has always been on of training. Certain construction work requires special skills. White people, Asian people, Hispanic people, all have to pay for their training in those special skills -either through schooling or through crap pay as an apprentice. How come one group gets the training for free? I was a poor white kid and I never got so much as a free lunch; much less free training in a trade. If I want to learn a new skill, I pay for it. I buy my own tools (or inherit knitting needles from my grandma)I read books, watch other people do the work, ask questions, find teachers, and practice practice practice. When Chasmyn and I started a small business, we did it on our own. There were no free hand outs.
In all fairness, there may be some obstacle to training for this one minority group, that other minorities don't have. It could be there and I just don't see it because I'm not living it. There may be some special hardship that I don't see.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Awesome Runs In The Family
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Talk about going the extra mile. The hubby-man will buy me coffee at 9 o'clock... but my in-laws... wow.

THEY BOUGHT US A PAIR OF SEATS FROM BUSCH STADIUM!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you jealous?


You can come over and touch them in November.

Hee! I'm so excited!

On a side note, there's a guy who's trying to salvage all the arches from the top of the stadium.
I have so many memories. So many events I've attended. I went to the circus with my dad there. I went to the NL playoffs last year. *The only post-season game I've ever had the good fortune to attend. :)* I remember uniforms in robin's egg blue, ans seeing Ozzie Smith steal home. Twice. Mark Mc Guire coming up to bat and the stadium lighting up with camera flashes.
And Ozzy's final season. When the emotion that lives in the heart of St. Louis baseball fans spread across the nation, infecting everyone it touched with the need to give Ozzie a standing O at least once a game.
Thank you, fans of other teams. Thank you for loving one of our players as much as we do.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

I Feel Loved

Last night, I mentioned that I hadn't had coffee all day. Then I asked the Hubby-Man if he would do me a favor... The request was for a cup of hot cocoa. It's hot and rich, and an acceptable coffee substitute (ish) if you don't want a whole pot of coffee.

But my awesome husband said, "You want to know if I'll go to 7-11 and buy you a cup of coffee?"

And he was totally willing!

So I feel loved.

15 years of marriage, and he still goes out to buy me coffee at 9 o'clock at night. I love him so much. :)