Best to stay at home and eat cookies I always say!

L'amazing Grace, how sweet surround sound,
That made the wreck you see...
I still is lost, so fine me please.
Robbed blind by just the fee.

Twas Mace that taught...
my Bart to sheer.
And drank my beer with glee.
How spacious did that Mace appear...
the hare I first deceived.

Threw many rangers, oil & snakes...
at that unruly bum.
Tis Mace that kept me safe, unharmed...
and Mace will speed my rum.

The fiord has given mud to me...
his bird my heart demures.
It will my field abortion be...
at least for a lite Coors®.

Fen, we've been near with prows and deers...
night pining to begun.
We've mo' messy ways to sting bod's days...
then, Hen, the worst chikkun.

Lamazing Grace, how sweet surround sound,
That made the wreck you see...
I still is lost, so fine me please,
Robbed blind by just the fee.

 

(of course I don't know what it means just ask what's snoo.)

Every year around this time I look for Walt Kelly books to get my dad for Christmas.  It turns out they are starting to re-print collections, YEY! 

House guests & theater & spinning OH MY!

My husband is Canadian.  I asked him about the Canadian Thanksgiving, certainly pilgrims weren't helped by the Natives in the same fashion there - and why it is in October?  Personally I think October is a more appropriate time for a harvest festival, but I wondered about the Canadian story for Thanksgiving. 

 

He said he didn't know.  They had pictures of pilgrims and horns of plenty growing up just like we did.

 

As for the why it is in October he said, "Canadians don't celebrate leap year so over time the holiday has moved."

 

Dry wit, that man.

 

So, this year I finally found the story behind Canadian Thanksgiving on this link, and wanted to share in case you are interested.

Once upon a time, my mother and I decided to make-up a word.  And we thought, "everyone makes up nouns, verbs and adjectives, what about an adverb?"  Remember, an adverb is a word that defines or qualifies either a verb or an adjective or another adverb and it usually ends in 'ly' such as quickly or intensely. So we came up with 'mooley', which is like an uber "very".

 

Unbeknownst to me, I looked up the word 'mooley' on Google and found that, indeed, someone had used that word before.  But not as an adverb and not in a very nice way - and I'll bet it's because I inverted the 'l' & the 'e'.  So please let it be known that I made up this word a very long time ago - long before the Urban Slang dictionary even came out - and it is not a mean thing to say about people 'acting Italian' - whatever that might mean.

 

So in order to spread the word, I thought I'd better get the word out to the five people who read here.  I know that is not a lot, but if I tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on and so on, as the Faberge advertisement goes, then it will be huge.  But if I tell 5 friends, then it will be a mooley big movement.

 

Having trouble getting back on track. Holidays are GREAT, but such a switch on schedules (not that mine is etched in stone) is hard

So, with what we call "Franksgiving" coming up (and I wonder what he - my hubby - will be giving?)  I am revisiting my vacation post.  It was the last time my family got together.  I have an amazing family.  We pretty much get along and enjoy each others company.  I purchased a lot of items in Alaska just for this holiday - mostly smoked Alaskan salmon.  We'll be revisiting our trip - the pictures are amazing, but not as amazing as seeing that stuff in real life - and I am mooley excited.  Don't know what 'mooley' is?  I guess I'll have to explain in a different post.

 

My parents decided that they wanted a family trip to commemorate their 50th Anniversary.  They chose to go on a National Geographic/Linblad Explorer Cruise in south east Alaska with the family.  My parents, my family, my sister's family, my brother's family, my father's brother & his wife, and my mother's brother and his son attended.  There were 19 of us on a boat that has room or about 60 passengers.  To the rest of the guests we were known as "The Family."  Very mafia(ish) if you ask me!

 

Here we all are (sans the sick uncle) on the bow of the Sea Lion.

 

On our second day we went to South Sawyer Glacier.  Here we saw harbor seals galore and really cool icebergs:

I love the color of this ice!

The girls get their own 'pet iceberglets'

 

and this contrast from the red iron of the mountain to the blue ice was beautiful.

 

The next day was our only foul weather day.  The mood fog looked like this:

We saw humpback whales in the fog, which was cool, but the pictures aren't good enough to post.

 

By the way... we were told that in the three months of summer, there were 10 sunny days.  We had five of them.  I credit my parents for this as they live a charmed life!

 

On the fourth day in the morning we saw Orca:

It was a pod of five whales, one male, two female and two calves.

On the fourth day, in the afternoon we took a zodiac out to view the wildlife:

Sea Otters are usually very shy.  Today, however, we were studiously ignored.

Don'tcha just love the size of those feet!

 

Stellar Sea Lions - love to lay in a huge pile and complain.

 

A curious boy checks our our zodiac.

 

In the afternoon we saw more humpback whales:

The neatest part about this encounter was that we were in an area of about 40 whales that were trumpeting back and forth to each other surface feeding over an area of several miles along the coast.  Even the naturalists on board were impressed.

  The whales were so close it was amazing!

 

We call this a rain-blow.

 

Day 5 is Glacier National Park.  John Hopkins Glacier calved for us very frequently. 

There was a noise like thunder with each calving and a huge set of waves that accompanied the bigger ones.

John Hopkins Glacier is one of the few glaciers that isn't receding.

 

I admit I can't remember where this was taken, but it was so beautiful I had to put it in.

 

The next two days were dedicated to looking at nature.  It was explained to us that because the salmon were running, it was a good time to see all the wildlife - and boy was there wildlife!:

 

Mergansers

 

Tufted Puffins

 

Mama Griz & her two cubs

These guys were great fun to watch.  Mama would fish and babies would play with the fish.

 

finally a pod of 9 humpback whales 'bubble-net' feeding.
This was really amazing as a microphone was put underwater and we listened to the calls of the whales as they coordinated their feeding efforts.

 

The trip was an incredible experience.  I thank my loving parents for the adventure of a lifetime.

The happy couple

Thanks again, Mom & Dad, I love you!

 

P.S.  I tried to get these pictures to be larger than you see them, but I don't know how to do that.  I'm sorry for it, but if you know how, let me know, O.K.?

 

. @ apocolypse_blonde, 

 @Aloysius_son

Well,

 

well...

 

it seems

. @mxyldove,  @ANVRSADDY,

 that I      

 @randaness,

have

@promisessunshine ,

played

@ANVRSADDY

a trick

@TKumusubi 

on you tagged folks...

 @Emjay1

Can you

@angry_coco,

figure it

@skinickadee

out??? (of course you can!)

If you were not tagged, it is a question of finding the hidden names.  I tried and tried to hide all my subscribed names, but it started to act up and they wouldn't stay hidden.  I wish I knew why that happened!

I am generally pretty careful about socks because I hand knit a lot of them.  It is tradition in our family for Mom & I to knit a pair of socks for each family member for the Christmas gathering.

These are from years past.

 

This year's 'crop' (note the pair still in construction on the left)

 

I have also been working on hats (it is why I don't have as many socks done yet this year)

 

Most of the socks I knit have computer dyed yarn.  All I do is knit and the pattern comes out as I go.  (The exceptions are the pair on the right in the middle picture and the hat lower left)

I know the pattern by heart and don't have to do much thinking and each project is small, so can carry them with me to meetings or riding in the car or watching a movie.  Plus everyone (in the north) can use more socks.  I am always amazed by the time it takes.  I am only doing the knitting of these socks, but it takes me three days to make 1 sock. (no, I don't spend an entire day knitting)  This is not like going to the nearest Mart and purchasing a bag of socks for a few bucks.  I can not even begin to fathom what it would be like to have to make ALL my clothing as many did 200 years ago. (I use this line when I demonstrate spinning wool at schools.)  And it explains why folks didn't have as many frocks then as now.

 

Lately I've taken to making matching hats with the leftover sock yarn:

The reason the sock may not look the same as the hat pattern is because a larger needle is used to make hats and the circumference is larger so the pattern will be thinner in stripes and different in 'blobs'.

 

So, while the blue bunnies do have some socks (and who would be surprised to hear that?!) I am pretty careful when I wash these socks.  And we seriously wear mis-matched socks to show off all the colors we have.

 

On a similar note, I also make itty bitty mitties and tiny toes to use as earrings or decorations.  These are knit on size 0000 needles and start with 10 stitches cast on.

 

 

I wish to lodge a complaint.  My house has been infested with sock stealing vermin.  There are almost never enough socks in the house.  Morning after morning we scramble around looking for matching pairs of socks to don. 

It doesn't matter the state of the laundry (which is almost always bad anyway; why does one worry about laundry when there is so much more to do in life?)because even with mountains of clean laundry to look through, finding a pair of matching socks is akin to discovering the secret for world peace. (just ask @blonde_apocalypse how hard THAT would be!)

Don't try to offer up suggestions to having lots of matching socks, I've tried all the reasonable ones and a couple unreasonable ones as well.  I have purchased many pairs of only one color, so if I lose one, there are more.  With five pair of feet in all different sizes, I still won't find a matching pair.  I've gotten quicky clips to put the pair in the wash together.  Only one comes out and the clips are in the bottom of the washer.  Once I even had to bring in the repairman to remove a damn clip from the drain pipe.

I am sure there is a secret plot by all sock stealing vermin to keep our feet in odd pairs of socks.  I've been told that rabbits in an alternate universe wear them on their ears to keep warm.  I don't know why this is, but I can easily imagine colorful eared fluffy blue bunnies - of course they are blue, 'tis an alternate universe after all!

Does anyone know a good exterminator?