When Knitting Was a Manly Art

Making good progress on the Gansey Sampler. Underarm gussets are partially completed and waiting for sleeves. Upper back about 1/2 complete. Don’t you wish all sweaters went together this fast…

Snowing again tonight. Looks like I’ll have to wait a bit for for spring…

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Sort of…

Started the Gansey Sampler from Beth Brown-Reinsel’s Knitting Ganseys. I’m actually a bit further along than this, Just starting underarm gussets. I just needed to start something again and this is *fairly quick* and has some interesting techniques to try.

And it appears that spring is not *quite* here yet.

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I use Firefox for my web browser on my Linux box. I’ve tried most of the various browsers available and always seem to come back to it.

One of the things I like is the ability to extend the capabilities of Firefox with “Extensions”. One of my latest extensions is Smiley Xtra plugin. It allows me to add any of more than 2000 smilies to my blog or anyplace else I post regularly.

Light snow this morning, but I took another walk around the yard anyway. Laurie asked for a close up of a filbert/hazelnut male blossom. If you look closely, you can see each of the individual flowers down the length of male catkin.

And just a the top of the male catkins are the *little* female flowers that will become the nut. Just below center are the tiny red petals of the female.

And bit more of the yellow crocus. Still nothing open yet, but a few more buds enjoying the chilly sunshine.

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slowly to the ridgetop, though we did have a little burst of snow tonight.

I love the beginnings of spring. After a dreary, wet winter it so nice to see stuff starting to bloom.

It’s really been a warmer than usual winter and it seems to me that everything is starting early.

The yellow blossoms of our native filbert (aka hazelnut)

and the pretty beginnings of a little yellow crocus at the edge of the lawn

and it also returns to me too. I spent the day in Portland at the Portland Art Museum visiting the Treasures of Ancient Egypt: Quest for Immortality. It’s extremely humbling to view pieces of human art that have existed for as much as 3500 years.

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It’s been more than a week since my last post and it’s time to catch up.

Jake: Still hanging on, though I’m not sure why. Still losing weight. Eating less, though still drinking and using the cat box.

Knitting: Nothing and probably nothing for a while. Life isn’t too conducive to knitting right now.

Work: Now that’s something to talk about. How can I work 9+ hours a couple time times a week and still be under 40 hours? Last night was a real winner. Our night manager called in. A sick daughter and she missed the night. A person short and we managed one of our biggest nights in nearly two months. $1300 dinner when we’ve been lucky to break $1000 all day. Then as I’m closing the till, I hear noises from the front of the restaurant. I come forward to find water everywhere. A clogged drain and our water cooled compressor for the walk-in overflowing it’s drain. We grab buckets and try to get a hold of the owner. It’s past 10:30pm and apparently he’s in bed, because there’s no answer. Meanwhile, I’ve got a plunger out trying to clear the drain and only get large amounts of gunk coming back out of the drain. Sigh.. I really don’t want to spend the next couple of hours fighting this. Finally the owner answers his phone, Told us how to turn off the water, but then wanted us to try using his cheap plumber’s snake to clear the stoppage. Nasty… By 11pm, we still hadn’t cleared the blockage and he told us to clean up and he’d be in early in the morning to try to fix the problem. Nearly 11:30 pm before we got out last night. I’m earning $9.50/hour for this? Oh.. did I mention the night manager is pregnant and the owner doesn’t know yet?

Cooking: I’m close to making a decision about going to culinary school. I’ve been talking to a number of chef’s and culinary instructors and they all say that my age shouldn’t be a problem. One of the instructors had two 60 year olds graduating at his last class and his opinion is that as long as you have the stamina and the desire, you’ll find a job. Now.. Where do I find an extra $15,000? Anyone?

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I’m deprived. I don’t have cable or satellite or anything that allows me to see all the great programs on the Cooking Channel, but I do have access to the internet and weblogs like Michael Ruhlman’s. Anyone who writes about cooking, boats and children can’t be all bad. And he has Anthony Bourdain as a guest contributor. Tony, the author of Kitchen Confidential and gonzo chef extrodenaire, weighs in on the current crop of Cooking Channel shows.

Funny stuff. Makes me wish I had a digital dish, just so I can see how bad these folks really are.

Jake: Jake is still with us, though as I sit here watching his labored breathing, I don’t know why.

Watch a cat breath. Sometimes you have to concentrate to see their chest move. With Jake, there is a highly visible, fairly rapid movement of breathing. He’s still eating and drinking, but I’m seeing daily changes.

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and it doesn’t have anything to do with either Eileen or the boyfriend.

My old man, Jake, is coming to the end of his days. Something is shutting down. He’s lost considerable weight in the past two months and over the past couple of days I’ve noticed that he’s breathing faster and harder even when he’s at rest. His 19th birthday will be the 15th of June, but at the current pace he won’t make it. I’m hoping he dies quietly in his sleep here on the ridgetop rather than one more traumatic episode of boxing in a carrier and taking him to vet for the final injection.

Either way, I’m probably going to take it hard. He’s been with me through thick and thin over the past 18+ years, and he’s going to be hard to let go of.

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Just because I’m feeling cynical tonight..

Naturally, the common people don’t want war … but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

Hermann Goering (1893 – 1946) -
Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe,
President of the Reichstag,
Prime Minister of Prussia and Hitler’s designated successor -
The second in command of the Third Reich

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There is a recent report about women and how they feel about their asses. I thought the results were pretty interesting:

• 85% of women think their ass is too big.
• 10% of women think their ass is too little.
• The other 5% say that they don’t care, they love him, he’s a good man, and they would have married him anyway.

Thanks Alex

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Molly Ivins died yesterday after a long battle with breast cancer.

I subscribed to the Texas Observer for a while, mostly to read her latest digs at the conservatives in Texas and in Washington D.C.

Molly was the ultimate ‘Bleeding Heart Liberal’ and was a joy to read. She will be missed.

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