Another New Year Is Upon Us

This surely is one sad little blog. I feel so bad for it. It's been my companion for years, always ready and waiting. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's even well-written. Lately it's just been neglected by that upstart KnitOasis blog.

I realized today, as I came back to look for my post about Epiphany, that I really really like this blog. I like the layout and the colors and (most of) the things I've written.

I also realized, looking at my New Year's resolutions for 2011, that the fulfillment of one of them ("Teach more people to knit.") has led to the virtual abandonment of this blog. Why? Because the KnitOasis blog is for business, and that's what my focus has been for the last year. I can look back from this January to the last one and say WOW! I have definitely come farther in the "Teach more people to knit" plan than I ever thought possible. I now freelance with knitting workshops at The Charleston Museum on a regular basis and teach knitting classes at Michael's craft store. Who woulda thunk it?

My success in the knitting instructor portion of my life has come at a cost, apparently: the neglect of my writing just for writing's sake, and, by extension, this blog. Getting a career off the ground takes focus, time, money and energy--lots of each! But I have not forgotten that I was a writer (of debatable ability, I'll admit) long before I learned to knit, and eventually we all must return to our roots and to our true selves.

Maybe that can be one of this year's resolutions...to write more. Sure, there's not a lot of time to spare in my crazy busy life. I wear an awful lot of hats: wife, mom, homeschool instructor, friend, parishioner, chauffeur, cook, housecleaner, AND knitting instructor. They say, though, that when you try hard enough, you can make time, especially if all you need is a few minutes out of a day. It also helps if you're motivated, or trying to return to your roots. Or both.

Here's to a happy and prosperous New Year, no matter what your goals.

Today we took a carriage tour

You've probably heard it all before, thinking that this is what the tour companies tell you just to sell you their tour packages, but a carriage tour really IS an amazing way to learn about a city. Maybe it's not true of every city or even every carriage tour within that city, but I can tell you that our experience with Palmetto Carriage Company was a great one.

Today our family took a tour in a city we already know quite well, thank you very much, and we all learned a lot from our very well-informed guide. I fluctuated between being impressed and slightly freaked out as our guide deftly navigated the narrow streets between parked cars, moving cars and other carriages, all the while looking at his passengers. This means he was not looking ahead. At the road. Ever. Like I said, it was borderline freaky. But I figured he did this all the time and our adorable mules "Hit" and "Run" were smart enough to know where to go anyway. I also knew that carriage wrecks in downtown Charleston are infrequent no matter which way the driver is looking.

The pace of a carriage, combined with the expanded viewing area that you don't get in a car, topped off with the fact that you're not walking the whole way, make a carriage ride worth it. I saw architectural elements on buildings that I've walked or driven by for years without noticing. And the stories are fun, of course. Every guide is different, but tour guides operating in Charleston are licensed and trained, so they all know quite a bit.

I came away from our carriage tour adventure today thinking 2 things: 1) Has anyone ever thought of doing an "Earthquake Tour" to discuss the 'Quake of 1886?
~~The result of having read City of Heroes: The Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886 recently~~
and 2) Wow, there is just SO much to learn about this city!!! I guess when you've been settled since 1670, there's a lot of history to toss around.

There are plenty of ways to tour Charleston, and plenty of things to see. Take it from this local--Palmetto Carriage is a winner.

Knitting in Public (or How Not to be a Hater)

(This blog post comes to us from KnitOasis, my alter-ego) (Because I myself never the house without taking along my knitting)(hahaha)

There are many variables in my life (despite appearances to the contrary). I have many interests and a few true passions, plus there are things that must be done every day or every week to fulfill commitments and obligations. Knitting is one thing that can be described as a constant in my life, though. I've knitted through good times and bad. I've knitted easy things and things that were so challenging that I swore it was going to make me give it all up; lock, stock and yarn stash. I've knit alone and in large crowds and in everything in between. It is a rare day that I leave the house without a project, carried along "just in case" there is a moment that could become knitting time.

And yet...

And yet I sat today in a lovely class at the Charleston Museum (aka one of my favorite places), and witnessed someone, other than myself, knitting during the class. Why is this even worth mentioning? Because, believe it or not, I HAD NO KNITTING WITH ME. Knitting in the car, knitting in several rooms of my house, but not with me. I had just been chatting with a dear fellow Knitter-Mom about how we really should have brought our knitting in with us, chuckle, chuckle. Then not 10 minutes into this class, I catch a glimpse of this other mom, knitting away while listening to the teacher. I am sure this woman is a kind, generous, lovely person, but I found myself being a Hater. As in, I hate that SHE thought to bring her knitting, and I didn't. It was bad, let me tell you. The milk of human kindness had ceased to flow from my heart and I had no one to blame but myself.

I can excuse it all by saying I had no idea what the structure of the morning would be and thereby could not have known I'd have tons of sit-and-listen time to make use of. But really, is that a good excuse? I think not. I purposely carry a handbag large enough for at least a small knitting project (and I don't fill it with things that would take up valuable yarn space), I make sure I always have a small project on the needles to keep handy for excursions, and I know that knitting is an activity that can be done in so many different situations without being considered rude or distracting. (Of course, there are exceptions to this, but that's another story.)

Later, as we toured the Civil War exhibits in the Museum, I saw displays that featured knitting needles and yarn and descriptions of how the women left behind during the war knit ALL THE TIME for the boys on the front. I felt them mocking me, those women of the 19th century. I just know they were always prepared when they went visiting...Parasol? Check. Lace gloves? Check. Knitting? Check.

I claim to be committed to my craft, and I have big plans for all the things I will knit this year. So, if you see me taking a few moments to knit in public somewhere, please know it can mean only one thing: I'm trying not to be a Hater.

A New Year Dawns

Fan that I am of making lists, I am not really such a big fan of New Year's Resolutions. Still, I keep making them, so what does that say about me? Don't answer that.

Of the 8 resolutions I made last year at this time, I can safely say that I only stuck to one or two, leaving me with the following quandary: do I move last year's unfulfilled resolutions to the top of this year's list, or do I chuck them altogether and start fresh? Does anyone else ever have this problem? I mean, those goals were worthy of setting a year ago, so are they no longer worthy of pursuit just because 12 months have passed wherein I have totally forgotten about making them?
You see my dilemma.

I think I'm going to keep what still feels pertinent and add what seems timely and let the chips fall where they may. After all, there is more than a slim chance that I won't remember making this list anyway.

New Year's Goals for 2011

1) Revise 2009 & 2010 NaNoWriMo novels into one spectacular, readable, publishable work.
2) Knit something for the Red Scarf Project well in advance of the yearly Dec. 15 deadline.
3) Start Christmas knitting much much sooner than I did in 2010. We're talking before Thanksgiving.
4) Blog at least once a month on at least one of my blogs.
5) Continue my quest for the perfect cup of homemade mocha.
6) Cut back on caffeine.
7) Teach more people to knit.
8) Tackle the knitted sweater again, hopefully with more satisfying results this time.

Happy New Year and may you have great success in keeping whatever resolutions YOU set for yourself this year!

This Old Movie

Never let it be said that I don't excel at something. I am a world-class procrastinator. I am by no means lazy, and I think if I were more lazy I'd get much more accomplished on my actual "to-do" list. Rather, I am a veritable genius at creating other things to do instead. For instance, instead of working diligently on the sweater that I started as a Knit-a-Long with my friend Jani, I have written a dishcloth pattern based on a design brought to me by one of my Monday Morning Knitting Group friends. I have knit 3 different dishcloths and one secret Christmas gift. The result of this is that, almost 5 months after beginning this sweater, I still have more to go. Jani, who stayed on track, has finished the knitting of hers and has moved onto blocking and buttons. Yay, Jani!!!!!!

A second example: instead of revising my NaNoWriMo novel, I have, among other things, created a new blog to house my musings about classic film. To be fair, classic movies do figure incidentally in the novel, so it's bound to help with that, but still...pro-cras-tin-ation!!!!

August** Plans: A To-Do List for the End of Summer

1) Eat peaches procured from Dillard's Peaches in Greer (aka the best peaches east of the Mississippi). Try not to say, "Wow, these peaches are so great!!" with every bite.

2) Take full advantage of Duran Duran Appreciation Day and play every DD song on Youtube. All. Day.

3) Finish knitting my first-ever sweater-for-me, just in time to put it away until, what? January?

4) Start novel revision by getting all 50,000+ words in one place (more or less in order) on the computer.

5) Begin outline for this November's NaNoWriMo novel, by deciding if an evil twin is necessary or if a nefarious look-alike is sufficient in the cast of characters, PLUS--which one of the people I know in my real life will get killed off this time?? Fictionally, of course.

6) Read City of Heroes: The Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886 in time for the 124th anniversary of the big quake on August 31.

7) Try to take in some of TCM's Summer Under the Stars, especially Norma Shearer on the 13th and Katherine Hepburn on the 20th.

8) Take lots of walks, storing up the memory of the heat and humidity for the long winter days ahead. Bwahahahaha!

**august-adj: respected and impressive
**August-noun: the eighth month of the year

On knitting up the (perfect) holiday

Today I found myself tidying up my yarn stash, specifically a drawer full of small balls of leftover yarn, in many colors and varying amounts. I was quickly caught up in a haze of creative contemplating. (Washcloth? Cat toy? Bookmark??)

I love little bits of leftover yarn. They don't have a specified purpose, like the yarn I bought to knit a sweater or sock yarn for, well, socks. Instead the little leftover bits are Free Agents, open to drafting by whichever team finds them useful. (Crazy scarf? Afghan square? Hat??)

Without a specified purpose for this yarn, I feel much less pressure. There are fewer expectations for the unassigned scraps. The receipt for their purchase is long gone, so cost is rarely a consideration. Making a mistake with this yarn is not an earth-shattering possibility. Instead, it is a relaxing, yet energizing thing to hang out with them. (Me: "Ya wanna go get some coffee?" The yarn: "Sure, why not?")

The Yarn With Purpose intimidates me somehow. It has Plans, it has its Destination keyed into its GPS, it knows who it wants to hang out with when it gets to where it's going. There are few margins in the life of Yarn With Purpose. (Me: "Ya wanna go get some coffee?" Yarn With Purpose: "Can't. Too busy." Me: "Oh. Well, OK.")

Now there are those knitters who will take Yarn With Purpose and let it know who's boss, changing the original Plan to something else, and doing it without a backward glance or the slightest twinge of guilt. I envy these people their ability to own the yarn instead of letting the yarn own them. I don't understand them, but I envy them. My own capacity for such behavior is relatively nil.

Maybe it's human nature to gravitate towards the things that make us happiest, or maybe it's laziness to take the path of least resistance.

It's a lot like holidays. We have found at our house that the holidays that are the least trouble, those with the fewest expectations and the most fun, are the ones we like the best. The holidays that are more margin and less pressure. When the day rolls around and the family can just enjoy itself, without having to act a certain way or follow a pre-arranged set of rituals, that is what makes a memorable holiday experience.

Since tomorrow is Independence Day, I'm going to remember this and pretend we are constructing our day from leftover bits of yarn, in many colors and varying amounts, without the pressure to create a perfect holiday sweater. I'm not even going to knit a gauge swatch for the day. Happy Fourth, Everyone!

When Passions Collide

Ok, to me the title of this post is eerily reminiscent of those cheesy romance novels we used to read in high school. You know the ones, with half-dressed drawings of flawless beauties standing submissively quivering next to equally half-dressed brooding hunks. "When Passions Collide!" Too funny.

That, however is NOT what this post is about. So sorry!

I was spending some time in Blogland with The Best of WWII, and I noticed that Melissa, the fabulous blogger there, had added a button since my last visit. It announces that she is a proud member of The Greatest Generation Society. Nifty! So I clicked it and applied for my very own membership, which as of this writing is currently "pending". After applying I was directed to this page, and began to utter loud excited noises of approval, along the lines of, "Oh, wow! Look at this!! This is SO coooooooollllllllll!!!!!!!!!!! Woohooooooooo!!!!!!!" You get the idea. It was the same thing that happened when I was in the mall before Christmas with the kids and discovered the WWII: A Day-by-Day History Calendar. Except when you are in the mall with your kids, you can't really put that much volume into your excitement, lest they suffer needlessly the Shame of an Uncool Mom.

The collision of passions came when I settled in to examine this page and blindly swung my feet to the footstool (or is it an ottoman?) and landed them messily on top of the Olympic Reindeer Hat that I've been knitting. Oops! I think the reindeer survived my Lands End loafers on their pointy heads, thank goodness! The moment made me thankful for my passions, ahem, and for the time and ability to pursue them. And for the Olympics which are frankly not exciting me much at this moment--hence the extra knitting and Blogland visits.

So the next time you find yourself in the midst of pursuing one passion, and you stumble over the evidence of another one, be grateful. With our without the cheesy romance novels.

Greetings from the snowy South! On Friday night we got 4 inches of snow at our house, and some of our friends got 6 inches out in the country. Aside from the power outages that seem to accompany such weather phenomena around here, it was a wonderful, once in 10 years treat.

Oh, and yes, that scarf is handknit and the cap was crocheted, both products of SuperCraftyDancerGirl's yellow phase.

Talk about the weather

At the risk of drawing the ire of friends who live in much colder parts of the world, I have to mention that the weather here has been a hot topic, so to speak, the last week or so. Today the temperature might eke past 49 to 50, which will seem balmy after so many days of 44 degrees for a HIGH. At night we've had lows of 22 in some places--night after night. Yes, I know this is nothing compared to a summer's day in Scotland, but this is Charleston, SC, not Charleston, WV, and we just don't live like this. Most of us don't even own a real coat, much less thermal longjohns or an ice scraper. This is serious, people. We're running out of cotton sweaters to wear layered over cotton t-shirts under our cotton hoody sweatshirts! This can't be the sort of weather that people retire here to experience, and judging from what I hear from my transplanted Yankee friends, it's worse when you don't expect it. To either add insult to injury or icing to the cake, depending on your perspective, there is a chance that it will SNOW tonight and tomorrow morning.

All these days in the 40's put me in mind of days in the '40's (1940's, of course), so to warm up your day, wherever you are and whatever the weather, here's a hot little number, written by my favorite composer of such tunes, Irving Berlin, and masterfully played by Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra. Ah, the days when music was music and musicians were snappily dressed! Enjoy!

A New Year

Something about the turning of the calendar makes me, despite my best efforts to the contrary, no doubt stemming from a deep-seated desire to not always be doing what everyone else is doing, want to make new goals, dream new dreams, and even be randomly optimistic. It is true that a calendar is just a calendar (unless of course your cats gave you one like my cats gave me for Christmas: World War II: A Day-by-Day History) and for the most part, one day is as good as any other for starting fresh. This year, though, I have decided to make an actual List and maybe even stick to it. Who knows, this being the start of a new decade as well as a new year, maybe there will be something magical about the goals we set.

So, in no particular order and without further ado, my

New Year's Resolutions for 2010
1) Read more.
2) Write more.
3) Know that #'s 1 and 2 do not refer in any way to Facebook.
4) Write more knitting patterns.
5) Revise my NaNoWriMo 2009 novel.
6) Eat at Qdoba (aka Home of the Best Guacamole I Have Ever Eaten) more often. This is the sort of resolution that comes directly from eating at Qdoba on New Year's Day and wondering why I do it so infrequently. I decided that if I did eat there more often, I could pull myself out of my food rut (Cheese Quesadilla with Pico de gallo, please) and actually try something else on the menu. It's about more than just the food--it's about getting out of ruts.
7) Take more long walks. Necessary to work off the extra Mexican food!
8) Cut myself more slack.

There you have it--eight little goals that hopefully will make 2010 a better year and maybe even get the new decade started off on the right foot. Happy New Year, Everyone!

Swag!

So have you heard about SwagBucks? Like many things I hear about via the internet, I approached SwagBucks with more than just a healthy dose of skepticism. As in, yeah right you can get free stuff just for using SwagBucks.com for your search engine. Sure, sure.

Well, I'm hear to tell ya, here's one thing you hear about on the internet that really is true.

If you don't believe me (and why should you, this is the internet after all), try it for yourself. Here's a handy link to get you started. Get 3 SwagBucks just for registering. Then use SwagBucks.com like you would any other search engine and rack up the free SwagBucks, which can be redeemed for prizes, including, but not limited to, gift cards, airline miles and comic books. Truly!

Alternative Programming

I've been thinking lately about the guilt I sometimes feel whenever I start assuming that certain aspects of my life are being lived wrong. I don't think this is a case of my conscience doing its job to save me from a life of degradation and squalor, rather it's the "Not Good Enough" program that I've heard from childhood, now in syndicated re-runs in my brain. Most days it's what keeps me from being truly joyful and at peace, and it's been playing a marathon the last few days.

It starts out with the "if only" introduction: If only I were more...smart, consistent, holy, loving, pretty, well-dressed, organized, erudite, well-read, cheerful, outgoing, involved in outside activities, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound...then I'd be Good Enough. Or, if only I were less....stubborn, unforgiving, moody, solitary, inclined to prefer chocolate over other food, lazy, a homebody, opinionated, flippant, a teller of bad jokes, afraid of intarsia knitting...then I'd be Good Enough.

Then it kicks into a detailed account of one of the above "if only's" and makes a convincing case for any shred of truth it can find in its chosen topic.

So I've been thinking about all this and wondering how to preempt that programming with something a little more realistic and affirming. Something like the "Reality Check" show. Today it might go something like this:

"Not Good Enough" the longest-running program in this or any brain, brings you "You Need to Get Out More". Today we'll discuss the fact that you haven't really been anywhere of substance and you rarely do and when WAS the last time you had friends over or went to see friends, or do you have any friends left anyway????

~~~WE PREEMPT THIS PROGRAM WITH A SPECIAL PUBLIC SERVICE BULLETIN~~~~
It's "Reality Check" Time:

It's the first full week of January and we've just had 6 weeks of holiday activities, gatherings, and an out-of-town trip. On top of that, your daughter has a nasty cold and shouldn't be out and about breathing on people or taxing her strength. PLUS, you have plans to do multiple field trips with the kids and your friends and their kids for the rest of the month, as soon as your daughter is feeling better. So relax and pick up that knitting and remember, God loves you, just the way you are!

A New Year

Musings about 2009, or what I'm doing instead of taking down the Christmas tree.

**OK, has anyone else realized that next year is 2010?? And doesn't that sound freaky?
**I could try again to get my stash organized, that being a fairly common Knitter's New Year's Resolution. I just read an interesting article that sounds like what FlyLady would do with her stash if she were a knitter. It intrigues me to the point that I can actually see myself parting with yarn that doesn't make me happy--if only to be better able to get to the yarn that does.
**Something I definitely want to try in the New Year: knitting two socks at once on one circular needle. I've just returned from the library with "2-at-a-Time Socks" and I'm all for getting two socks done at once. My previous method of having 2 sets of dpns going does work, but only if I have 2 sets of the size I need--which makes for a lot of needles. And while the needles and knitting accessories DID manage to get organized in 2008, I think I'm allergic to buying twice as many dpns.
**My apologies to my friends in the frozen North, but it's just been plain hot here! I never thought I'd say this, but the temperatures in Charleston have made me think there might be something to "global warming" after all. I mean, really, does 77 degrees sound like an appropriate January temperature to you? Ugh. Perhaps I could resolve to complain less about the weather...
**All in all, I'm not big on resolutions--I don't really need more reasons to feel guilty a year from now. But if I had to make some general goals for 2009, they would sound something like this:
Pray more, gripe less. Learn some new knitting techniques. Be more thankful for the people in my life. Be a better blogger. Seek peace and pursue it.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

In Memory: Van Johnson

I've chosen this picture of Van instead of one from his earlier "heartthrob" days in the 1940's, because it was taken circa 1985, about the time I was privileged to meet him. I like to play a little game connecting myself to a multitude of celebrities through "my buddy, Van Johnson", since he and I worked the same summer musical at Casa Manana--he as headlining star, me as walk-on extra and apprentice stage hand. I think it's fair to say that he was a really good actor, maybe not a great one, but always reliably good. Because the bulk of his stardom was 50-60 years ago, there may be only a few who will read of his passing and feel any sense of loss. But having name-dropped him for so long, you can be sure that, at our house, we bid him a fond farewell. I think SuperCraftyDancerGirl summed it up well this morning when she said that now I will have to refer to him as "my buddy, Van Johnson--may he rest in peace."

Remembrance Day

I know it's 2 days past Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day/Armistice Day, but better late than never, right?

A friend sent me an article that was slightly more intellectual than I think I was capable of absorbing with background noise of JrBravesFanatic building massive block towers on a wooden table. But, these were my comments to her on it and I thought I'd share:

As an amateur historian, I've studied WWII and its aftermath quite a lot as well as spending my life in total awe of my step-grandfather who served as a Marine Raider in the Pacific. Yesterday we watched a 1943 movie about a man who served as a spy in the ranks of the Nazi SS, which led us to speculate on how horrible it must have been to have to pretend that the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis were no big deal. If we value life, we have to be affected at the loss of it, whether in war or in peace. This is where I could get on my soapbox and decry the desensitization of our culture and its subsequent affect on Remembrance Day/Veteran's Day. If, after all, we count human life as cheap, then what would it matter that there are men and women who have served our country in wartime who bear the internal scars that come from witnessing atrocities? But the author of the article was focused on our response as Christians, not that of the culture at large. The question I see is--is there a difference? Do we really remember the death and resurrection of Jesus? Or is it another in a long line of stories far removed from our daily lives--stories like those about the men who liberated the concentration camps and were never the same again?

This is the lesson that history can teach us--that our lives are a gift, made possible in large part by the deaths of many.

Thank you, Veterans, for what you've done for all of us. And for my fellow historians, may we never tire in our efforts to remember yesterday for the good of tomorrow.

Election Day minus 3

First, some history...

During WWII, our boys were sent into battle after having been taught that the enemy was not comprised of individual men--regular guys with parents, sweethearts, wives and children. They were, for the most part, convinced that the enemy were nothing more than dirty, Godless Nazis, Fascists, and Japs. How else could we send boys raised in a Judeo-Christian belief-system to kill other people--lots of other people? It's called dehumanization. Your enemy isn't really a human, rather something much less important, and much more dangerous, an animal with orders from a tyrant.

And now...

Election time draws near (finally!), and I see a similar trend has emerged. The political pundits on both sides are working overtime to revile and slander, to dehumanize the opposition until it is easy to see the Godless, freedom-hating threat to our country, personified in Candidate A. Or B, or C, depending on which side has your ear. And as good little Americans do on both sides, we listen, we repeat what we hear, and we begin to believe that our way is the only way and any other way leads to catastrophe or worse.

I am very thankful we have so much freedom of speech. Without it, the political pundits would not get paid for what they do, they'd be jailed for it. And forget blogging! What I'd like to remind us who claim to be Christians is that we are to be salt and light--somehow different from those around us. Our views should be shaped less by the media and more by the Bible. Naturally we have the freedom to listen to whomever we choose, (and to vote for whomever we choose) but when we start spouting, I mean, talking about politics, can anyone really tell a difference between us and CNN?

Does it really help your cause to bash your opponent? To dehumanize him or her? Have we forgotten that it says somewhere that "all men are created equal and are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights..."? That the opposition's candidates are individual people, regular guys and gals with families and passions and the courage to run for political office? Doesn't anyone else remember hearing the same warnings of dire consequences in 1992??

I'd like to challenge those of my readership who are Christians to pray before you speak. Sounds easy, I know, but I'm not through with you yet. Stop for a moment and re-think your "Oh, God, if you don't do something now, that awful heathen will ruin our country, and isn't it time to use that fire from heaven thing again???" prayers, and remember what Jesus taught us.

He said:
"You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that." Matthew 5:43-47

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken." Matthew 12:36

Isn't it possible that He meant for this to be true even now?

World Habitat Day

Today is World Habitat Day. If you are reading this in the comfort of adequate shelter, you are better off than the one billion people worldwide who currently live in slums. I wonder, what would happen to the quality of life if everyone who felt compelled to upgrade their kitchen counter tops to granite gave that money instead to Habitat for Humanity? It's just a thought, and I admit it's a decision I've not been faced with, but watching House Hunters and seeing so many whining Americans turn down a potential home based on the floor coverings or the wall color tends to make me philosophical. That and the fact that I know of a group in Central America right now, building a house with Habitat for a family who needs it. Let's be grateful out there, people.

Books, books, books

Found this on StarKnits, and felt compelled to play:) Not sure how some of these books made the list, but then, I'm a book snob. Resisting urge to send a list of books that should have made the list to the Nat'l Endowment for the Arts, with lots of Anthony Trollope, some P.G.Wodehouse, Dorothy Sayers, and Jan Karon. And HELLO? Where is the Mark Twain??

The National Endowment for the Arts believes that the average American has read only 6 of the books on the list below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read only 6 and force books upon them

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen--probably my fave of Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens--I tried to read this, does that count??
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro great movie, great soundtrack, haven't read it
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, all of them!)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl the org. movie is my fave.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Twelve Signs of Summer

1) It takes more than one trip to water all the flower pots on my front porch.
2) The mosquitoes have joined forces and are working in shifts to make sure they are available to annoy us at all hours.
3) The grass is as high as an elephant's eye, thanks to the daily rain deluge.
---ok, daHubby just cut the grass, so we'll just say it's achingly green from all the rain---
4) There are beach towels and swim suits drying on the back porch.
5) Tomatoes! Lemonade! Watermelon!
6) Ceiling fans are all turned to high.
7) The cats are taking long lazy naps. Oh, wait, they do that all year.
8) New episodes of Monk and Psych.
9) It's too hot to knit with alpaca.
10) The boys are watching a lot of baseball. Oh, wait, they do that all year. (love you guys!)
11) Two words: heat index.
12) The countdown has begun...only 2 more months till the weather cools off!