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1/31/2008

If Its Thursday, Its Books-n-Dogs!

This week’s question is suggested by (blogless) JMutford: Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?


The characters who come to mind first are the wonderful creations of Shel Silverstein in books such as Where The Sidewalk Ends with lines such as


"Captain Hook must remember/Not to scratch his toes."
Also, the swamp resident called the Yipiyuk, the Bloath who eats poets and tea.
And Melinda Mae who ate a whale as well as Reginald Clark being afraid of the dark.

These wonderful characters give voice to the frights and fears, joys and sillies not limited to children, but embraced and appreciated by adults.




~~~ Spooning ~~~

Taken in August, this picture makes me realize just how much Lailah has grown! Her little legs seem to have telescoped!!

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All of you, serve each other in humility, for God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5

1/25/2008

4 Things About MEME

Sweet Maureen at
http://greatfullivin.com/blog/2008/01/25/its-an-award-and-a-meme/
tagged me with an award and MeMe. Thanks so much, Maureen!! Your blog makes ME smile too!!
4 Things About MEME

4 Jobs I Have Had
  • College Adjunct Faculty -- Early Childhood Education
  • Elementary Level Teacher -- English As A Second or Other Language
  • Kindergarten Teacher
  • Elementary Level Teacher -- first, third and fourth grades
4 Movies Watched Over and Over
  • Under the Tuscan Sun
  • Chocolat
  • Tea With Mussolini
  • The Red Balloon

4 Places I Have Lived
  • LaCrosse, Wisconsin
  • Logan, Utah
  • Newport, Oregon
  • Leetown, West Virginia

4 Shows I Watch
  • Psych
  • Chuck
  • Ugly Betty
  • Cashmere Mafia
4 Places I Have Been
  • Cancun, Mexico
  • Alaskan Inland Passage
  • Tuscany, Italy
  • Vancouver, Canada
4 People Who E-mail Me
  • Donna
  • Lorraine
  • DH
  • Karin

4 Favorite Things To Eat
  • Caprese
  • Ravioli
  • Chocolate Cake
    • Genoa Salami
4 Places I Would Rather Be
  • Tuscany, Italy
  • Southern California
  • On a tropical beach
  • New England
4 Things I Look Forward To This year
  • Delta Queen Cruise on the Mississippi
  • Fall in New England
  • Being with DH
  • Hoping for more time with our grands
4 People To Tag
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Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O LORD, do not abandon those who search for you.Psalm 9:10

1/24/2008

Dogs on Thursday

(Phone Cam pic) One of Lailah's favorite things to do is to chase around with Max and pull his collar off. This involves a great deal of growling and boxing until Max wears down. She stands victorious with his collar, which I then take away from her since she enjoys chewing it. This definitely interrupts my knitting time!! Feisty, bouncy Lailah.

Meanwhile, collarless Max thinks--Whew! That'll keep her off my back for a while!!
Sweet, gentle Max.

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But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
Psalm 13:5

1/22/2008

I'm A Logger...Up From Coos Bay Oregon.....

This Log Cabin Blanket has been a WIP for quite a while.


What is the knitting muse that inspires us to work on a specific project? Lately, it's been leading me to finish this up and get it mailed to Warm the World. :)

I started this blanket with size 7 needles to use up some oddments of a few acrylics that I had around. The colors are meshing fairly well with dark blue, cranberry, purple, white, forest green, and periwinkle.
GREAT BIG thank-yous (yooz?) to Rhonda at http://rnning2wn2.blogspot.com/ for the "Loveable Blog" award! Rhonda, you so blessed my day! In that spirit I choose to pass the award to three of the loveable ladies I've met online:





and

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Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8

1/21/2008

Martin

~~ The "I Have a Dream" Speech ~~

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

1/17/2008

Dogs-n-Books on Thursday

A Glance from Max
This is his happy face!



"This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:
How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?"


Yes, to some extent I do choose books based upon reviews, particularly of an unfamiliar author. However, reviewers sometimes write points that are negative to them, but are attractive to me. So a negative review does not automatically cause me to pass on a particular title. If I am sure I won't enjoy a book, a review will not cause me to read that book.



How about you? What role do book reviews play in your selections?



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Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.
 
Proverbs 21:21

1/15/2008

What am I reading?


Moo at http://woollymoose.blogspot.com/ tagged me for this fun book go-round. The instructions are to turn to page 161 in the book you are currently reading and write sentence 5. Here it is:
"It was only seven-thirty; it would still be open."
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Not very exciting all by itself, is it? Since I haven't read that far yet, I didn't scan the page for details. The book is fine reading. The sort of book that a knitter can enjoy, although I must admit that I could put the book back on the shelf this minute and feel fairly certain of where the various story lines are going. The cast of characters are, of course, the knitters who come to the LYS. Each is wildly individual--maybe a bit over-drawn in characterization.
An interesting aspect to this book is the web site attributed to the LYS that is the heart of the book. http://www.walkeranddaughter.com
Then, the book's web site http://www.fridaynightknittingclub.com/
And, the authors web site http://www.katejacobsbooks.com/
Of course, each links into the other in a circle of book promotion. You might enjoy visiting these sites!
If you are reading this, then you are tagged!! Please leave a comment if you post your book on your site. I'd like to see what you're reading!
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Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Philippians 4:6

1/13/2008

Hat on Pottery

Finished a child's wool hat with Tahki Kerry yarn and size 9 needles. I used ideas from three patterns: a scarf and hat set at http://www.lionbrand.com/ , a Toddler Tassel Top pattern, and ear flaps from the Iceland Earflap Hat at http://www.straw.com/ Since I had to use my phone-cam, this picture is a bit fuzzy...er, fuzzier than the hat. It will be included in the box of woolies for http://www.warmtheworld.com/
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I took my troubles to the LORD; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer.
Psalm 120:1

1/12/2008

AbFab, Add a Bit More Yarn...and Stir...

Nothing like a package from http://www.yarnmarket.com/ to brighten my day! I originally ordered the yarn to use with the mohair in the AbFab throw, however the Tiny Tots colors won't work for that.


The Waikiki will beautifully add some heft to the mohair strands. This ghan has so much mohair---is absolutely gorgeous, however I find that I tire of the filmy yarn and want another fiber to carry with some of the mohair. Hence, I searched for other yarns to work with some of the mohair. This is the Colinette Absolutely Fabulous Afghan kit in Amethyst which I am making for our teen DGD. Sometimes these colors seem so sugary that my teeth hurt! She is all about purple!

I added some short circs to my collection---one can never have too much yarn or too many needles! I love working with bamboo needles!

Happy weekend knitting to all!

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But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16

1/10/2008

Dogs on Thursday

Lailah protects her end of the raw hide chew bone with a sense of victory. Max and Lailah love the raw hide chews. I'm happy for them. Happy for me when they are so contented. But, those rawhide pieces can be the nastiest looking things around!! And, forget about stepping on a wet, gooey one in bare feet!!
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1/07/2008

Lamp Hat

Starting a new decorating trend soon to be seen on HGTV? Or, another completed hat for www.warmtheworld.org ? Did you choose the second? Good! This crocheted hat is based on a pattern at www.garstudio.com I added ear flaps since the Warm the World organization has indicated the popularity of this style.
Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky
Hook: size J

I added a bit of Colinette Heather mohair for interest.
Do you knit for a charity? Which one(s)? My charities are listed in the side bar.

Blessings flow.

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So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 1 Peter 5:6

1/04/2008

Hats to Warm the World

My eyes welled with tears when I read the end-of-the year newsletter from Warm the World. So much good has been done through the hands of yarnies, so many items given those in need. It is beyond heart-warming. The newsletter might be at http://www.warmtheworld.org/ where you can read about this ministry. This project is growing by leaps and bounds.

Among the needs are hats with a reminder that teen boys like dark, solid colored hats and scarves. Another item that caught my eye is the popularity of hats with ear flaps and Shirpa hats. There are, of course, other items needed.

Today I used some chunky Malabrigo and size 10.5 needles to make the "Iceland Ear flap Hat", a free pattern at http://www.straw.com/ I added bits of Colinette mohair for fun and convinced Miss Alexandra from my doll collection to model this too large hat on her.

Isn't she just the most precious baby? I had to scrunch the hat since it is not doll-size, but she still is quite fetching!
The pattern starts with the i-cord, then garter ear flaps, 1x1 ribbing, and stockinette. It's a fun knit, however I am now doing a crochet hat with the Malabrigo just for a change of pace.
Hope your knitting is happy knitting!
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Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success. Proverbs 15:22

1/03/2008

Thursday: Dogs and Books

~~~ Boxers in the Snow ~~~

Max strikes a regal pose as he surveys the back yard and spots Lailah's silliness.


Meanwhile Lailah snuffles around with her muzzle in the snow! I am not kidding! Could she be scenting the resident rabbits under the deck?
Max: Enough of this 11-degree stuff, I'm heading for the door and warmth!


"What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?"I'm in the process of reading a Zadie Smith book, On Beauty and am looking forward two getting into two books I bought with a Christmas gift card: The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story by Frances Kiernan and The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy by Barry H. Landau. Although The President's Table is a lavish coffee table book, it is heavy on content and interesting insider's information from the author who is a former Head Chef at the White House. It's a lush book, a pleasure to handle.
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God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10