Work Work Work

An armful of AbbietheKitty....

Hi Mary,

All I have been doing is working at H&R Block and trying to go to bed early so as to get up in the morning half way awake. But I had these pictures in my camera forever so I thought I would give The Skeeterness something to look at.

Hope the schooling is going nicely for you and you are enjoying having the sailor at home.

Love,

Nancy

Obey Me Earthling...

I am SuperCat, see me fly!

E and the Snowshoes

Once upon a time in a land far to the north a tiny woman decided to snowshoe for 13 plus miles. Yes it was E and yes she was in Duluth for what used to be called the John Beargrease Marathon Snowshoe Race, but is now called the Northwoods snowshoe marathon. E took it easy and only did the half marathon.

What a wimp.

Jon sent me this picture of her crossing the finish line last weekend. It isn't enough that she jumped in the damn lake two frozen weekends ago but now she has to go and run, er snowshoe a half marathon.

How is a sister in law supposed to keep up? Oh, that's right. WE CAN'T KEEP UP! That is why she is the racer and I am the quilter I suppose. Well when she slows down and takes a nap...Hmmm does E ever nap?.. well, if she did, she could do it under one of my quilts.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Love to E

Nancy

'E' and the New Years Jump

OK OK I know it has been a long time since THE jump but I have been very busy procrastinating. (And very successfully too I might add.) Anyway I pupped out of the early morning jump this year. I mean out of viewing it, not jumping as I am not INSANE thank you very much, but E sent me these two pictures today and I thought they really needed to go in the blog. Insanity on this level needs to be recognized and applauded whenever possible.

Yah she looks happy doesn't she? I just went to youtube and reviewed the drewietube E video and oh my gosh I felt the insanity all over again. I heard myself say "oh E!" when she jumped in and I know I will always feel that way whenever she does something wonderful and crazy and just like herself. Oh E! We love you!

Love,

Nancy

Grandma Essie's Bag

Hi Mary and Jeni,

Cousin Mike sent us a package just after Christmas. He called to let us know it was coming and then checked to make sure we had received it. He spent 18.00 on postage!

In it were pictures from Aunt Josie's scrapbook. Many we had seen but some were new to us. There are several of Jeni carrying a big pail in the backyard of the cottage at Crystal that I had never seen before.

Also in there was an envelope or clutch style bag done in a sort of crewel embroidery that he said was started by Grandma Essie and finished by Aunt Josie. I was thinking that I would save it for Jeni unless someone else really wants it and then we can draw straws. I thought of Jeni as she is the one I know who really loves bags of all sorts.

Things have been going along here fairly slowly. We go to the doctors with great regularity but otherwise stay home. I am staying in the Transplant program this year, unlike last winter, so I get to go and have blood drawn with Mom.

Today I got to go to a HRBlock meeting and then go have a tooth drawn. I have just a little swelling and if I don't look at it in the mirror I am fine.

I am not supposed to swish, spit or suck for 24 hours so it will heal wet instead of making a 'dry socket'. They won't let me have hot or caffinated beverages for 24 hours too. And, of course, only soft foods. I am keeping fine with tylenol and books to keep me distracted.

Love to you both,

Nancy

I'm knitting something.

Hi Nancy,
  I'm knitting something from some knotted yarn I made about two years ago.  These pictures were taken in February of 2007:

 

  You were asking about the shawl in my profile picture.  You can see the silk/mohair blend yarn above that it was made from, in the teal color.

  Do you remember buying all these skeins at Lee Ward?  Circa 1990 or so?  Then years later you gave them all to me.  I made a few things, but mostly I just had a few skeins of each color, so I decided to make a knotted yarn out of them.  I clothespinned them to my music stand, and went in order from fuschia on through in the order you see.  I'd draw 14 inches from the skein, knot it to the previous strand, and wind it up on the old ball winder you gave me.  When I ran out of a color, I just continued on to the next until there was nothing left.

  I ended up with 5 balls of approximately 40 grams each.  I'm pairing a double strand of the knotted yarn with a dusty pine green loosely stranded Brown Sheep skein that I got at the yarn swap I had a couple of years ago.  When I get a new cable for my camera, I'll let you know what it looks like.  Love, Mary

                        

Christmas with Mike from Minot

Hi Mary and Jeni,
Well Christmas was interesting. We tried to do a movie scenario where the plumbing goes on the fritz and ruins everything but I turned the water off and ignored the problem until after the food was consumed. It was hard though because everyone kept coming up to me and complaining about the drip. (Well it turned into a river) and I couldn't turn it off.

First the water was just coming out in a little stream. It started after Jonny did the dishes around 1:30. ( So it was HIS fault) We went under the sink and played with the turn off valves and it went away. But not for long. Pretty soon it was back again. Jon and I both played with the little turn off lever under the sink but as soon as we turned our back the water was back stronger than ever.

By 4:00 I decided to just turn off the water downstairs. Both boys and Dad looked at the faucets. Dad had the replacement inners but the faucets were so corroded ('gunky' is the technical term, according to Mike) that the only thing to do was replace them. Of course we weren't sure of that right away so we had our Christmas dinner. This is the 'adult table'. Mom and Dad and Chris and Deb got to sit there.

We had three different desserts. Jon had to explain the apricot sauce for the fruit pizza. There were options. That is his Chocolate Whiskey cake too and a couple of sweet potato pies that Deb made in the dark of the night.

We also played a hard fought game of Hand and Foot. (I won and annoyed Chris mightily).

During the game Jon went out and played with the faucet some more, but when I went out to look at it I just decided to call the plumber. I could see lots of corrosion, I mean gunk, under the faucets and thought it looked like it should be replaced.

So I called and got a plumber scheduled for between 11 and 2 on Friday. However at about 8 a.m. there was a phone call and I made Jim answer it (Poor Jim) and it was the plumbers saying they had a man in the area and could we take him early. That is when we met Mike. He came in the house and the first thing he said was "Who here is from North Dakota?" He is from Minot and came here in 1985.

After Mike was under the sink he said we should replace all the stuff under there because he would be out there to replace those within 6 months and it would be an extra 79.00 each trip. Dad came out of the bedroom about that time so I double checked with him and he sleepily agreed. We shall see if he remembers it later. We did everything Mike said and it looks very nice under the sink now and we don't have to use the drip pail anymore. I suppose I should get under there and scrub while everything is out. I suppose. Humph.

However, as Shakespeare says "All's well that ends well" so here is our ending. Nice eh?

Love,

Nancy

My birthday flowers

Hi Mary and Jeni,

I promised to post my birthday flower photo so here it is. I also am sending a picture of my cake too so you can see how gorgeous it is. We got it a Woulettes again. Poor Jim forced to spend his money. But I think it was worth it.

The flowers were a surprise. I thought they were for Mom for Christmas and so I went over to Brown and Greene and they all yelled "Happy Birthday Nancy".

You guys are the greatest.

Love,

Nancy

It's Whitefish Lake

Nancy! I looked at that quilt and said, "That looks like Whitefish Lake," and then I read your post. Yes, I do like it! That is one of my favorite scenes - the lake in winter. It's quiet, and icy blue and white, with all the subtle colors of winter. Here's the picture that I think of when I see that quilt...

...and some more we took that day. It was the morning of the day we got married.

Gee, I'm starting to feel all sentimental. This anniversary will be the first one that the Ol' Bear is on a cruise and we won't be together. Sigh. Oh well, what matters is that we're still having an anniversary, and we'll be thinking of each other on that day. Honestly, usually I'm the one that forgets. In fact, Christy and he have a running joke about if I'll remember or not! And no, I don't think you should cut anything off it!