Sync or Swim

This whole iPod thing is pretty consuming...I spent a whole afternoon arranging playlists and downloading every last cd in our collection onto the computer today. The kids ran wild through the house while I marveled at the sheer amount of work that it took to figure it all out and get it all onto my little nano. It seems that while we were all being wooed by Bill Gates, the folks at Mac were conceiving of ways to incapacitate the entire world by making us while away hours a day downloading music. Genius, I tell you, genius! For years, I have labored under the delusion that Mac computers were made for really nerdy people who only cared about seeing things in black and white and who had freakishly small hands. (I am still not convinced that they don't all have small hands, it seems like my some-what large hands just stumble all over those keyboards.) But the scales have been removed from my eyes. Anyone who can figure out how to fit five hundred songs on a little radio the size of a matchbox car can't be bad, can they?

Anyway, I finally got all my music onto iTunes and then the ones that I wanted onto the ipod (I actually had to prioritize because I had so much music, weird, I guess all those cd's were hidden under the eleventymillion Disney movies in the entertainment center), and then I happily knit about five rows on my raffle sock. It was nice to actually have something going on in my ears while I was knitting, something other than screaming kids that is. I'll have to post some pictures tomorrow (of the sock, not the screaming kids).

Nano Nano

(Nanoo Nanoo... Love that show...)
Well, I got it, I got my ipod nano.

Now if I can figure out how the spank to take off all the songs that I didn't want on it when I plugged it in, I'll be happy...for the moment that is. Then I want a Bose SoundDock to go with it. Those ain't cheap baby, so J is going to have to tie a lot more of these to pay for it!

*^/+rant~"rave*/talkstoo^much

The older that I get, the more weird things that I worry about. Seriously, things like thyroid function, and cholesterol and retirement. Things that ten years ago were a distant, unbelievable possibility are creeping up and becoming reality. Some of the things that I've worried about in the last months: will I grow older gracefully, or will I dye, tighten and suction into my middle ages? Are those blondish highlights or is my hair turning white? Am I too old to wear shorts? Am I the "too old to wear shorts" lady? Where did all this flab under my arms come from? I thought those were up here not too long ago. Is 8:00 too early for bed? How did a hair grow that long in that spot without me noticing?...The saddest part about this all is that I'm only thirty, I know, a thousand years ago I would have been considered elderly, but still, I'm still young-ish. I guess I know why no one took me seriously when I was twenty, they were all jealous, they were all just jealous thirty-somethings realizing that they were never going to be twenty again. That is why thirty somethings make it their mission to make young people feel useless and stupid. It sure happened to me a lot. Now I know why, they're young and beautiful and they all think I'm old! Ah, irony is a cruel mistress, youth really is wasted on the young. And if I'm this cynical at thirty, I can't imagine how I'll feel at sixty.
But enough of that. I'm not that old, and most of that is just jesting anyway. Mostly...

We went to the rancho again last week, after watching fireworks in Castle Rock. I started a sock for the raffle at my family reunion on the way to NM. I can't believe how fast the straight knitting goes, that angel's rest sock will never be done. I know that now. And I went ahead and broke "rule #2". I bought a new set of #2 needles so that I didn't have to try and take angel's rest out and find my spot later. It seemed to me that when I read the comments on that post, there was a sort of frown on the purchase by my spousal unit. I was willing to overlook it and buy them anyway, that is why I called it rule #2. When I told J that I broke rule # 2, he asked me if I ate in the shower. Just a thought, but if you are planning on spending the rest of your life with someone, you might want to discuss what they think is really important. I wonder what his rule #1 is...

Ok, they have changed the format of blogger and it is beginning to annoy me. I can handle the autosave, even though it makes me look down and lose my place about once a minute because the button changes colors (those of you who don't have a blog won't know what I'm talking about, but bear with me here). Then, they moved all the icons to the other side of the screen, annoying again, but I think I'll be able to adjust. The thing that is really irking me is when I put in a link, it adds all the computer language to my text now. And I can't see what the link is until I preview it. This may seem little, but if I accidentally remove one tiny bit, the link won't link. I hate stuff like that. They also changed the spell check to turn the whole screen blue. What is going on! Why wasn't I consulted? Maybe this has something to do with it:

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Of course, to me my blog is priceless, because it is like writing my own fan mail, but still, how can I expect the whole world to appreciate my genius...I am, after all a feeble old woman, right??

Let's not point fingers...

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird. A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone. You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are. You get along well with: The Ring Finger Stay away from: The Thumb

What Finger Are You?

I'm not sure that I like being the finger that I could most easily live without...but whatever. What are you? I am afraid that J might be a thumb, but I guess I'd better find out, just so that I can justify our next big fight..."If you weren't being such a THUMB, we could work this out!"
**Posted much later** It turns out that J is a pinky too, now there is one pinky I KNOW I couldn't live without!

Dy-No-Mite!

I've had the theme song form Good Times stuck in my head since last Thursday, which was the official start of my mini-vacation to Chicago. I had so much fun...good times indeed. Me after 1 martini. I think I'll stick to the beer. Looking a little toothy, don't you think. It looks like my friend is holding me up, no?

Just a cool building, not as spectacular as some of the ones that we saw on the architectural boat tour, but I like the name, and I really find the fire-escape fascinating. Would you rather take your chances in a fiery inferno or try to come down off the top floor of that bad boy?

Holding up the big bean (or the cloud gate) at millennium park Hard work!

On the "magnificent mile." I only bought a soccer ball at Nike town, cause I was all out of money by then.

We had a great time, and I am already ready to go back. There are some really good deals on airline tickets, and a girl can't ever see too much of the city, at least this girl can't. I love urban living and I like to imagine myself as a savvy, sophisticated city dweller, riding trains and navigating busy boulevards...in all actuality I've nearly been hit by a taxi cab and a tour bus, in two different cities. The driver of the tour bus actually flipped me the bird, along with most of the tourists...and there were two different times where I nearly hyperventilated because I missed my stop on trains...and there was that group of senior citizens that I plowed over because I was afraid of missing the subway...and I have no sense of direction when I can't orientate myself toward the mountains...pathetic really, like a babe in the woods. Ah, but I love the thought, and don't they say it's the thought that counts??

So guess what I went and did, I purchased Charmed Knits. I am so excited! I am planning to make a Harry sweater, but I think I'll put a B on it instead. There are also some extremely cute mittens that I want to make, I've never made mittens before, but I can't imagine they would be much harder than socks. But in all honesty, I really just wanted the book for the novelty of owning it. It is so up my alley and all the better that it actually has patterns that I want to make. Now if I can just afford the yarn!

I really thought that I would be running everyday now, but I haven't had much time to spare, so you'll excuse me if I have no progress on my three mile goal. Actually, that isn't totally true. I did run one day in Chicago, and I did a pretty good run, two miles. Let's just not count the fact that it was on a treadmill, with zero grade at a lower altitude! Pretend that it was my best ever, that's what I'm doing.

Zis is vhy ve never, ever mix zee sex vid zee knitting...

I'm sure Freud would have a lot to say, I, however am rendered speechless. (even the camera didn't want to be part of such an embarrassing display)

Before I was born

I am in the throes of planning a family reunion, it is a lot of work, but one of the best things about it is that I get to learn so much family history. I am amazed at the way that our early generation lived and made their way in the world. It is truly fascinating. These people were living breathing humans and with out them, I wouldn't be here at all. I am putting a book together of photographs and I keep being taken aback by the fact that most of these people are gone, and some of them (like my grandmother, most of her sisters and two of her brothers) are still here, just much older. As I look at each picture, I want to know more and I am somehow nostalgic for a time and a place I never knew. Maybe because I can see the resemblance in some of the pictures to me or my kids, or because I have heard so much about most of these people that I feel that I know them. Who knows? But I have to say it is haunting work. What happened after these picture? Were these people happy? Are these babies dead and gone now, and how did they live their lives? The other haunting thing is that I know some of the stories and how things turned out. I look at a picture of my grandmother's sister when she is young and I know that she died of breast cancer, or that my great grandfathers twin brother drown in a stock pond when he was five. What will our children and grandchildren learn and know about us? Will we leave enough behind to put the pieces of our lives together? A little deep, I know. Especially for someone who puts all her photos in an acid ridden shoe box and positively quakes at the suggestion of making a scrapbook. But still, I can't help but wonder.

This is a picture of my great grandmother and her daughters (I think the baby is my grandmother). Doesn't it look all dust-bowlish in this picture? My great grandparents on their honeymoon in 1925

And these are my grandmothers siblings before she was born.

I am leaving tonight for Denver and then bright and early for Chicago tomorrow. I am pretty excited, but I think I might be in some sort of guarded excitement, because I am waiting to make sure that I am out the door before I believe that I get to go...

I am taking the angels rest sock with me, but I doubt there will be much knitting because I will be busy shopping. Yay! Not that the sock will mind, I haven't touched it since the temperature reached the mid eighties and I decided it was too hot to knit. I am still trying to find my other size two needle, but I have a grave suspicion that it ended up in the trash, because the last time that I saw it, it was perched atop a stack of papers and junk that was leaning precariously toward the trash can below it. It isn't too far outside the realm of possibility that it may have fallen over and landed there in the trashcan. Now the question is, do I get a new set of needles to finish the sock or do I reap the natural consequence of not putting it away in the first place?

Ok, I'm off to pack and get out of dodge! See ya when I get back.