Sometimes it pays to complain...

I left some feedback on WalMart's website the other night about the plaid fabric that I'd bought that had been cut badly...

Surprised the hell out of me when the department manager for the Fabric dept at WalMart called me this morning (at the buttcrack of dawn! 7:45am!!!) Talked to her for a few minutes and explained what happened, she apologized and told me I'd have a giftcard waiting for me at the Customer Service desk... Went up there this afternoon and they gave me a $25 gift card!!! (whoohoo!!!) I think the fabric that I had was probably $2 worth... (several 1/4yd pieces)

Not a bad deal...especially since she told me on the phone that it was going to be a $20 giftcard...I kept my mouth shut when the lady from the Cash Office told the Customer Service casher how much to give me... (inside I was doing a happy dance)

So, after much consulting with my dad...I gave him the $25 giftcard, and then we took the Star Wars Trilogy dvd set back for the cash, and we went and got a 1gb SD memory card for my new PDA... Now I have a halfway decent mp3 player.

My dad used the WalMart giftcard this afternoon and bought himself a couple more of the shirts that we'd bought him for Christmas.

I thought that was pretty cool. Worked for WalMart for a bit, and never really cared much for their business practices...but at least they tried to do something to make up for the problems I had...I never thought they'd give me a $25 gift card tho..

A few Christmas pictures

Here's a few pictures of my tree...

And here's my mom...holding my dad's stocking (both my mom and I have fairly empty stockings...dad's not real good at buying stocking stuffers)

Mmmm! dinner was yummy!

Just got done with the pork ribs...they were tasty! The jalapeno cornbread was even tastier...the chili is going to be dinner for tomorrow...along with leftover ribs.

just opened up the present that my friend Don sent me...it was the almost perfect gift (no, not a Hobby Lobby gift card, but exactly just what else what I wanted) The first season of The Magnificent Seven tv show on DVD. I'm going to be camped out in front of my tv for the rest of the night now. :)

time to finish wrapping (bagging) up the presents. Then I can sit, watch Mag7 and crochet. Perfect.

Is dinner ready yet?

I'm still starving to death, and now my aunt Sid has put the idea of cornbread into my head. I have jalapeno cornbread mix in the pantry...and garlic butter in the fridgerator...and and and....I'm STARVING!!!!

*checking directions on cornbread mix*

I think I'll wait till after I pick up my parents from church and see if Dad wants to make the cornbread, I dont think I'll have to twist his arm too much. All he's had to do to cook today was put the chili into the crockpot and put the ribs into the barbeque crockpot thingie with some sauce and Liquid Hickory Smoke... We're doing simple stuff this year...altho I might put a baked potato in the oven later (to put chili on top of)

too bad I didnt think of anything for dessert other than some cookies...I wonder if Hostess Ho Ho's would count as a dessert food...maybe if I put a ice cream christmas tree next to it and top it off with whipped cream? (thank goodness we remembered the whipped cream)

I have to go stare intently at the crockpots and hope that dinner comes soon...and wrap a couple of presents...errr...uhh...put the presents into the nice fabric bags that I've been sewing for the past several years. I've got a nice collection of them now, and my dad likes them because it's saved him a bunch by not buying wrapping paper and he doesnt have to struggle with the tape and ribbons.

I'm starving!!!!!

My dad is making chili and some ribs for Christmas...my mom and I had asked him to make chili and french fries to eat today and tomorrow. My dad has been dreaming about making ribs for quite awhile apparently. A couple of days ago he started talking about wanting this crockpot style barbeque pit thingie. So, last night when he took us down to Target to do some grocery shopping and get a few more presents for him, he wandered off and bought himself his rib cooker he's been wanting. Told my mom that she bought it for him for Christmas. :)

So he's upstairs, basting ribs and stirring chili...I'm sitting down here, dying of hunger because the chili is starting to smell good. (I didnt eat breakfast)

I'm hoping that Santa brought me a Hobby Lobby gift card full of money so that I can go yarn shopping monday. I cant decide on anything new to crochet, so I think I need to go yarn shopping and buy a ton of that and get some new patterns. I doubt that Santa will bring me a Hobby Lobby card...at least not one with a zillion dollars on it so I can clean out the yarn department all at once.

I forgot to get stocking stuffers, so while my parents are at church, I'm heading over to WalMart to see what's left after the last minute shoppers raided the place today.

Ranting about WalMart's craft department

I'm making fabric gift bags to put Christmas presents in. I bought some really pretty plaid fabric the other day at WalMart. Pulled out the fabric today and was getting ready to pin it to sew it into bags when I realized that the moron fabric cutters at WM cut it so crooked that if I try to sew it the lines in the plaid are going to be all wonky.

I used to cut fabric for Hobby Lobby and (ironically) Walmart. It was at WalMart where I learned that if you cut fabric with lines in it (like plaids, or quilt panels) that you have to cut one side of the fabric at a time.

I understand that it's really freaking time consuming to cut it on the line like that, (used to hate the quilters who'd come in 5 minutes before I was supposed to go to lunch, pull down 30 bolts of plaid and ask for forty-five 1/4yd pieces) But it really needs to be done this way.

I know some people reading this are going to think I'm an anal retentive bitch, but if you've ever worked with plaid fabric you'll understand.

Now I have to go up to WalMart, bitch to the manager, and see if they'll re-cut it (and hope that they still have the same fabric in stock).

What did I do?

this has nothing to do with crochet... I'm sitting here, scratching myself to death.

I have food allergies...no idea exactly what food I'm allergic to (other than seafood) and what I ate today seemed at the time to not be anything bad. All I've had today is some leftover pizza from the Old Chicago restaurant (wasnt very good, so I didnt eat it all) and some Campbell's chicken noodle soup with an entire can of creamed corn dumped into it instead of water (that's the way my dad made the soup for me when I was little..it's a comfort food now) and some mandarin oranges.

I guess I'm just whining, because scratching the hives off my body is so annoying (and time consuming, and not to mention it could get messy) One of these days I'll find an allergist and find out what it is that's causing this.

On a crochet note, I cant decide what to make next...everything I've started in the past week or two has ended up frogged.

Resized some pictures

I went thru most of my blog and resized a lot of the pictures...decided to make it easier for people on dial-up to be able to see the pictures. It was easier than I thought was going to be...Photobucket, where I store my pictures, has a resizing tool...so I just went thru all the pictures that I have linked to here and dropped them down 50%...

Showing off again Part II

Did another pineapple shawl. This one was done with Red Heart SS Light Fucshia with a "K" hook. It's a bit bigger than the pink one I did. (pink one was made with an "I" hook and RH Giant worsted weight yarn...yarn was a bit thinner than the Super Saver yarn)

The fucshia shawl took me about 7 hours to complete, and it's my favorite (until I can get my hands on some purple yarn...WalMart was out of the color I wanted the other day)

The fucshia one drapes a lot better than the first one and feels a lot warmer.

This is definately one of my most favorite things that I've made so far. I've always wanted to make something with pineapples in the design...ever since I was a little girl and saw the crocheted thread pineapple pincushion that my grandmother used to have hanging on the wall in her kitchen. (I have THAT pattern too)


Here's a close up of the fucshia one

A side-by-side comparison of both shawls

and another close up of the fucshia

Just showing off again.... :)

I got a little bit obsessed with a pattern this week. It took me about 5 attempts, but I finally got it figured out (except for the edging, which I decided not to do) The pattern originally is from a doily pattern for a chair back doily. I used an "I" hook and worsted weight yarn (Red Heart...think the color is Baby Pink) The first few attempts took me a couple of days... I had originally attempted it in blue, but ended up not having enough and I had frogged that yarn so much that it was not in very good shape, so I started over with another yarn...frogged that one a few times and got nearly finished when I ran out of yarn...since that was a discontinued color, I had to start over again... By this time I pretty much had the pattern figured out, so it was easy to do...took me about 5 or 6 hours to do this one. Another hour to weave in tails and to attempt the edging (left the edging off)

It's actually a warm shawl...I didnt think it would be till I put it on and stepped out onto our enclosed deck to fiddle with the Xmas tree. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Might end up keeping it.

This is what my obsession got me.

Beating my head against a wall....owwww!

This is basically a review of a pattern I've found on the internet.

I'm trying to make the Seraphina shawl. ( Click Here ) and I have to say this is the worst written pattern I've come across in a long time. The designer has errors all thru the pattern... I've attempted this thing several times in the last year and STILL cannot get past the first 3 or 4 rows. Sure, the shawl looks great in other people's pictures...not exactly sure what they did to get the pattern to work for them, I just cannot get past all the mistakes in this pattern.

Sure, she has lots of nice pictures, but the pictures do not always correspond with the text of the pattern. Plus, she changes the direction of the pictures so many times that it's very hard to follow what she's doing. It would be so much easier to do if she'd have the pictures all showing the shawl going in the same direction (example...have the point of the shawl facing down, consistently thru all the pictures, so you can follow the flow of the pattern)

I'd love to be able to make this stupid thing, but it's so confusingly written that I just cannot follow it. I think my only hope will be if Dot Matthews ends up designing her own version of the shawl. I NEVER have problems with Dot's patterns. (ok, so I've been spoiled)

I guess I could sit all day tomorrow and try to figure this shawl out...they're forcasting a "little" blizzard for tomorrow... Lots of nasty ice rain will be coating the roads and sidewalks before the snow, so I'm planning on not going outside if I can help it. I'll have to if the dog has to go potty, but other than that, I'm staying in and hibernating.

I guess I'll go toss out the skein of yarn that I ruined trying to figure out the Seraphina shawl. What a waste.

Finished!!!! How's it look?

I finished the sweater. Here is a picture of my mother, modeling the sweater for me.

And a close up of the finished sleeve

looking more like a sweater now

Here's the sweater with about half a sleeve worked onto it. If my hand doesnt explode from overwork, I should have this finished by this weekend. Here's the pictures

More sweater pictures

Taking a break from the marathon crocheting of this sweater... (darn carpel tunnel syndrome!) I took a couple of new pictures. Did a measurement of the length of the sweater too. From the back of the neck, to the bottom of the sweater, it's now 27 inches. I may yet add another inch or two, but right now have to hold off because I have to make a yarn run to WalMart later for some more blue so that I can do the sleeves.

Here are the pictures

From the front

From the back

I cant wait to finish this, not that I'm not having fun crocheting it, but I'm excited to see what it's going to look like once it's all done.

Sweater in-progress pictures

Here are some pictures of the adult cardigan sweater I'm working on. Got the pattern from Dot's website http://patbythehook.blogdrive.com/ (probably the best crochet pattern writer on the internet)

I diverged from her pattern a little (a lot) I did the yoke exactly as the pattern said, but then I had a problem getting one of the stitches for the body of the sweater to work right for me. (I was dizzy from an ear infection...all drugged up on Dramamine, not much was making sense) So, I decided to do a fan stitch instead. I figured if it didnt work, I could frog it back down to the end of the yoke and start over. Surprised the heck out of me that my fan stitch is working...glad about that....I really didnt want to frog it and start over.

Here's the first picture from the front

From the back

And a close up of the fan stitches

I'm excited about this sweater. I've always wanted to be able to crochet a cardigan sweater, and now it seems I can. I already know it's not going to fit me, but maybe it will make a good Christmas present for someone. I just hope I dont have any problems with the sleeves. (that's my big worry now)

I got a couple of 40% off coupons for Michael's Crafts on sunday... Decided to go and wander thru their dwindling yarn aisle... (seems to get smaller and smaller everytime I go there) After much feeling and fondling of the yarn, I decided to see what the LionBrand VelvetSpun yarn is like. It's a really really really soft chenille yarn. The cool thing is that it's machine washable. So I decided to make this scarf

I used a "P" crochet hook, and crocheted the length of the scarf (end to end, instead of the side by side scarves I usually make) The stitch is just a basic single crochet. I figured that since chenille is kind of a furry yarn, that any fancy stitches I might have wanted to try would get "lost" in the furryness. It took me about an hour and two skeins of yarn (all I could afford...even at 40% off!) I think it turned out pretty nice.

*sniffle* I think my flu shot worked a little too well...

I've been sneezing and sniffling for two days now. Got a flu shot over the weekend...It's probably just allergies (my neighborhood is still under construction...lots of dust from the construction), but dang if I dont feel like I've got a cold or something.

I started a new afghan last night...it's my first attempt at a round ripple, just not the pattern that I wanted to try. This one is a 5-pointed star. I'm using this pattern http://www.angelfire.com/va3/heartfeltangels/littlestarafghan.html

It's basically practice for the other round ripples that I've found...this one seems to be the easiest, so I'm doing this one till I get more comfortable doing a round ripple. Then I'll try the other ones. For this one, I'm using Red Heart Super Saver yarn...So far the colors in it are Lavender and White...I've got some Starbrights laying around that I might use (variegaited multicolored yarn...kind of like a rainbow color) and I might throw in some Amythyst also...I'm pretty much using what I have laying around in my scrapboxes.

So far it seems to be going pretty well...looks like it curls up a bit in a few spots, but when I lay it flat it seems to straighten itself out. It's actually not a bad pattern...little difficult figuring out exactly what the increases are since the pattern only gives you enough to get you to Round 9...after that you're on your own. But so far I think I've got it. It's actually not too much different than making a giant granny square.

Not sure who I'll give the afghan to once I'm finished. Maybe I'll keep this one?

this is what I was looking for...

This is a picture of the afghan pattern I'm looking for. I saw the picture on the Bellaonline crochet forum...someone else there is looking for it too, altho, I think she might have found it...

Now what do I do?

I just finished a purple and white poncho (pictures will be posted later this weekend probably)

Now I need to find something else to make.

Saw a picture of a 6 pointed star ripple afghan the other day (a star ripple is kind of like a giant granny square, except it's in a star shape...think I've seen them with anywhere from 5 to 8 points on them)

I have a pattern for something like it, but I dont care much for the pattern that I have... I wish I could find something like the picture I saw the other day. Oh well...gives me something to look for when I'm at the library.

I have a ton of scrap yarn left from the last few projects I've done...I think it's time to start another scrap afghan...I just need a really cool pattern

Oh look! A crochet pattern!

This is a crochet pattern that was taught to me by my grandmother. I never had a written out copy of the pattern since I had it memorized. To the best of my knowledge, it's something she came up with on her own, and since the words in the pattern are mine, this pattern is copyrighted to me. Please do not sell the pattern. Some pattern designers dont want you to sell any item you might have made with their patterns. I'm not one of those... If you think you can get some money for a finished afghan you might make with this pattern, go right ahead, who am I to stop you...just dont sell my pattern to anyone.

Thanks to the people who helped me write it out and tested it for clarity for me.

I am planning on putting some pictures of an in-progress rectangle granny, since I know some crocheters do better if they have a picture for comparison... I'll try to get that done in the next few days. Until then, try your best with just the text of the pattern.

And, if any thing in the pattern needs to be clarified, please tell me and I'll see if I can figure it out. Just remember, this was my first ever attempt at writing out a pattern.

********************

Rectangular Granny Afghan

Special stitches: (corner shells are 3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc)

Hint: when fastening off leave a long tail to be worked in later so the stitches won’t come apart.

Round 1:
ch 48

Dc in 4th ch from hook and next 2 chs, ch1 *sk 1 ch, dc in next 3chs, ch 1* repeat from * to * across (9 more times) ending with 1 dc in last ch. fasten off leaving a long tail to weave in


Round 2:
Attach new yarn in last ch-1 sp before the last dc. Ch 3, 2 dc, ch-1 in same sp, 3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc, ch-1 inside dc loop, working on other side of starting ch (3 dc, ch-1 in each sp across) until ch 4 loop (3dc, ch-1, 4 times in loop), (3dc, ch-1 in each sp across) joining with sl st in first dc.

Round 3: Attach red in first ch-1 sp of row 2 (ch 3, 2 dc, ch-1, 3dc ch-1 in same sp for corner, 3 dc, ch-1 in next sp, (3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc, ch-1 in next sp for corner) 3 dc, ch-1 in each sp across joining in ch 3.

Round 4: continue in pattern until size desired.

For more than one row of same color after joining sl st to the first ch sp and work in pattern.


********************

This is cool...

If you have Yahoo Messenger, they have this cool (mostly) free service on it...It's Yahoo Music. You can choose from a bunch of different stations that play streaming music. It's pretty cool...right now my favorite station is the Big Band station. Not sure what it is about music that was playing on radios when my parents were toddlers, but I really enjoy it. I really like The Andrew Sisters, and Nat King Cole...and Ella Fitzgerald...and especially Louie Armstrong...My favorite song has to be "What a Wonderful World". Love that song for some reason. Back when 9-11 happened, when I was still working for WalMart (boo! hiss!!) I was sitting in the front of the store, crocheting little patriotic ribbons to sell for donations to the Red Cross.

So, I'm sitting there, crocheting my little fingers off...terribly sad about the terrorists attacks a few days before, when some guy comes into the store, starts to walk past the table I was at...then he walked back, stuffed two $100 bills into the jar in front of me and refused to take any ribbons for it. The song "What a Wonderful World" was playing right about then...I'd always loved that song before, but I guess seeing some guy just stop, pull out that money and stuff it into the jar made me feel good, and so now when "What a Wonderful World" plays, it just makes me feel better.

Too bad WalMart fired me about 2 weeks later. They panicked because people were not shopping for a couple of months after 9-11...so WM just started to thin their herds of blue vested cattle...guess they needed to do that so they could pay the people in the sweat shops their few pennies a day.

Hope I dont sound too bitter about having worked for WalMart...I still shop there, (they're squeezing out all the other stores in my area) I just wish that the WalMart that just landed in a cornfield near my house had a better craft department...it really sucks...that craft department is only a bit nicer than the one that the Kmart down the street from it used to have (Kmart got rid of their craft departments in the early 90's)

Note to self...

Dont leave valuable crochet patterns printed out on the printer (which is below my desk) because when the dog gets a tummy ache, he gets a serious craving for paper, and a huge urge to turn that paper into homemade confetti.

TinyMonsters (my dog) is feeling better now (hopefully!). We took him to his favorite vet, Dr. Ramm, and he got poked and prodded (Tiny just LOVES Dr. Ramm and will do whatever he wants him to do...things that I cant even get him to do).

It's seriously hilarious to watch a vet tech try to get a urine sample from a dog...at least Tiny's been trained to go on command...all I had to do was tell Tiny to "hurry up", and the vet tech had to scramble to hold a Tupperware container underneath the dog. Wish I'd had a camera.

I'm really impressed with Tiny's vet, which is why I'll drive 6 miles out of my way with a drooling, yapping 95 pound behemoth sitting in the seat behind me. I'll switch to a closer vet when I get a new dog...maybe...not. I'll just get a smaller dog next time. (something I can pick up when it doesnt want to do something)

Got no crocheting done this weekend. Went out with a friend last night in Lincoln...went to Mammoth Hall at UNL (big anthropological museum) and the planetarium. Watched a movie, and then stopped at the Flying J Truck Stop on the way home for french toast. Didnt find out till around midnight (at the truck stop) that my dad had been trying to reach me all night because my dog was ripping up carpet, eating the plant life in the front yard, and puking up said plant life all over the house. Tiny apparently was more than a little ticked off that his favorite human (that would be me) was not home to comfort him during his gastric distress he gets occasionally. Oh well...Dad never believes me when I tell him how crazy the dog gets when he becomes pre-bloat...now maybe he'll understand me the next time I make an executive decision to take Tiny to the Doggy ER ($250 just to walk in the door) to get Tiny checked out.

Trying to save Grandma's crochet pattern stash

I've started to go thru the stash of crochet patterns that my Grandma O'Neil gave me several years before she died. (ok...more than several years...she gave them to me before she was too deep into the Alzheimer's)

Most of the magazines are WorkBasket Magazines. Some of them go back to the 1950s. Some of the retro patterns are probably back in style now. There are also a few Crochet Fantasy magazines (earliest one is from 1984) and my aunt brought me over a few copies of Magic Crochet and Crochet World, along with a few WorkBaskets that she found around the house.

Some of the older magazines are starting to crumble, and a few of the magazines were obviously well used. (I recognized a few patterns as things that Grandma had made for me, my sister, and my cousins)

Since some of the magazines are crumbling into dust, I'm bypassing my usual reluctance to commit copyright violations, and I'm typing some of the patterns into Word and saving them to CD so that I'll have them if the magazines totally crumble. Most of them are printed on cheap acidic paper...it's pretty much a given that they'll disappear in a few years. I'm sure I'll pick one of them up someday, only to have them fall apart like 3,000 year old paper scrolls.

I'm going to buy plastic comic book bags and will be putting each magazine in a separate bag. It wont stop them from crumbling, but it might slow it down a bit.

Some of the patterns that I've already typed up, I've printed off (actually planning on using those patterns fairly soon) and I've put them into some binders. (finally, all those classes in Desktop Publishing are paying off) I've reformatted some things, like bolding some print, and using italics

In the Header and Footer spaces, I've put what magazines I've copied the pattern from...year, issue numbers...

I know it's technically a copyright violation by making copies, but they're only for my own use and I'm not posting them to the internet. I think Grandma would like it that I'm getting some use out of her patterns...it's great to have a nice big stash of patterns to drool over....errr...ummm...browse through.

Bad week.

A few nights ago (monday, I think...) my aunt's dog was attacked INSIDE my aunt's house by a neighbor's dog. My aunt's dog is not doing very well tonight, and might possibly have to be put to sleep this weekend...

The vet is giving the dog a few days and some various medicines to see if she might get better. Judging from what my aunt said tonight, I'm not sure this will have a happy ending.

This is really ticking me off, that my aunt's dog has to suffer because of the carelessness of a neighbor who cant keep their dog under control.

I'm not usually one who would want to hurt a dog, but I really do want to see the neighbor's dog put down if my aunt's dog has to be put to sleep.

As for my crocheting...I havent gotten much done this week, but I did start a new afghan...this one is being done in all white.

Went to the new WalMart SuperCenter that just opened up the street. Their craft department really really really sucks... Hardly any yarn, small amount of fabric. It just didnt impress me at all.

Migraines really suck...

Owwwww...I need some Ibuprofen...my poor widdle head hurts...this is what I get for trying to go to bed early last night...(1230am) I ended up not falling asleep till sometime after 2am, and then had to be up at 745am to take my dad somewhere. I hate migraines...this one is making my entire head and my neck hurt.

On a happier note, I got a new pattern book today... I've now got the instructions on how to crochet Care Bears... Hope I can figure this one out...I know a couple of little girls who seriously love Care Bears.

I'm still working on my patternless sock monkey doll... So far I've got two legs made...I need to find a decent picture of a real sock monkey so I can see what shape the body is supposed to have. At least the legs, arms and tail all have the same basic shape. I know my big problem will be making the mouth and the eyes. I've never been good at embroidery.

Crochet stuffed animals...

I'm still trying to figure out how to do some amigurumi.... I've done some basic stuffed animals before, so I understand the concept of how to make the parts and put them together....I just cant decide what I want to make, or when I do decide what I want to try to make, I just cant get my crochet hook and yarn to cooperate with me.

I wonder if Michaelangelo had the same problem when he was carving David or the Pieta?

I read somewhere once that Michaelangelo wasnt creating the statues, he claimed they were already there in the marble, and he was only releasing them.

I guess it's kind of the same thing when I crochet something...I already know what I want to make, I've got the yarn to make it, I just have to arrange the yarn in a way that it becomes whatever my brain is imagining.

so, anyways, my latest attempt at making an amigurumi is (hopefully) going to look something like a sock monkey (gosh, I really hope so!)

I've already got a leg crocheted (in Red Heart Super Saver Lt. Grey) I dont know if I have enough of the grey yarn to make the entire monkey in the same color, since I'm using up scrap yarn...so it could end up looking kind of strange... My big worry is making the face. I cant embroider, so he might end up a faceless, slightly colorful, strange looking sock monkey. Maybe I'll make him in a Halloween theme...then he can be a FrankenMonkey...

More thoughts about the aftermath of Katrina

I'm sure that everyone is watching what is going on in New Orleans, and will be evaluating just exactly how we (Americans) react to a MAJOR disaster like a Cat4 or Cat5 hurricane hitting a city and wiping it out. You can bet there are people (terrorists) watching what is going on, and they're probably figuring if they can just do enough damage to knock out the infrastructure of a city, that the looters will finish the rest of the job by raping and pillaging the place. I really do hope that every state government is taking note right now of what NOT to do in the case of a disaster...they need to make sure that something like this does not happen anywhere else the next time there's a major disaster like this.

I'm not saying for America to get out of Iraq...I actually support the war, but I do think that we need to keep our National Guard troops on American soil so that we're able to respond a Hell of a lot faster than what's been going on in Louisiana. That's why we have a National Guard, they're here to back up the civillian police force when there are instances of massive civil unrest, and to help mobilize assistance in getting food, water and medical assistance to the people who need it.

They need to place National Guard troops around the places that really need to be protected...like the hospitals (protect them from the looters looking for drugs), the evacuation staging areas (to keep people from rioting when there isnt any room left on the buses), and around the food and water supplies so that it is evenly distributed to the people who need it and not hoarded by the looters and rapists with weapons.

They probably could also start setting up MASH units in easily protected areas to help supplement hospitals in the areas they're taking the sick and injured people to. The sick and injured are going to be a major drain (not their fault) on the cities that they're being evacuated to, if we have MASH units in place, they can help keep the hospitals from being totally overwhelmed.

My dad told me tonight that the author Louis L'Amour said once that three out of five people you pass on the street are savages, they just dont know they're savages yet...it takes a major disaster or an act of civil unrest to bring it out in them. I think that's been proved this week. (I have no way to confirm that L'Amour actually said that...I tried to look it up, but cant find out where it was quoted at)

Now I'm getting really worried.

Spent another day watching FoxNews, and just keep feeling worse and worse about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Watched Shepherd Smith talking to people coming out of the sludge...I'm wondering why someone didnt make up a sign or something, or at least taken a can of spray paint and painted arrows on the pavement to at least show people where to go, rather than let them sit on the waters edge on the interstate, wondering where the Hell their rescuers are.

This really scares me...if New Orleans, a city that's got to be used to at least occasionally having a hurricane pass by it, can be so overwhelmed and so completely unprepared for what has happened (I'm not passing blame) then what will happen if some disaster of biblical proportions happens somewhere else? (like where I live)

It shows me that we can never be prepared for something this horrible to happen.

Also saw on the news that people in muslim countries are gleefully dancing in the streets, happy as clams that Katrina did such damaged and killed a bunch of Americans. Hopefully these people will NEVER have any huge catastrophe happen where they'll need America's help.

It seems like the rest of the world hates America, but who do they run to when a tsunami slams into their shores, or when a 8.7 Richter scale earthquake knocks down their mud brick houses...or when a dictator invades their countries and decides to turn it into it's 19th Province. They ask America to pull their asses out the fire/water. And no matter what the political tensions might be, we gladly give them our money and our assistance and help them. We're one of the most powerful countries in the world...we're generous to a fault when people need our help, but when we need help, the silence is so deafening that you can hear the pin drop from 6,000 miles away.

Guess I'll skip the Mardi Gras this year...

I've been watching the news today about Hurricane Katrina. I didnt quite believe it this morning when I saw the news and someone in Mississippi (think it was the mayor of Gulfport) said that "this is our tsunami". I didnt think it could be that bad

As the day went on, and I watched more and more of Fox News, and heard that the water was rising in New Orleans, and that 55 people died in one county in Mississippi...I'm starting to believe that it's worse than bad.

I live in Nebraska, so I'm pretty removed from it all, but it's starting to slowly sink in...

I feel almost as bad as I did on September 11th when I woke up to find that the world had changed. At least this time it was a storm, an act of nature, and not 19 insane people willing to kill for their religion.

I just dont quite understand why the governments of the states that were hit by the hurricane didnt hire Greyhound buses before the storm hit to take anyone who wanted to leave, but couldnt afford it financially, out of the storm area.

Finally finished!

Here's some pictures of my American flag afghan. Took me about a month and a half to actually crochet, and then another two months to weave in all the yarn ends.

and here are the yarn ends. There were 193 of them, and weaving them in was too much like handsewing which is why it took me longer to weave them in than it did to actually crochet the afghan.

Glad I dont live in the South

Watching the news about Hurricane Katrina... Makes me really glad that I dont live anywhere near the South. (I'm in Nebraska) I'd rather take my chances with a tornado and the occasional flash flood.

Should have watched that step

I'm on the wounded list now...went to the movies and a step jumped out and tripped me.

Actually, I was sitting on the end seat, and decided to get up and go buy a pop...the step kind of juts out about 3 inches (or the seat is set 3 inches back from the front of the step). My left foot caught on the step, and I fell down on my left side, right smack onto my left hand. Didnt break anything (been there done that, this doesnt feel like anything broke) I felt my pinkie, ring, and middle fingers on my left hand bend back at the same time that my wrist bent back. These are apparently important fingers for me when crocheting. Hopefully it heals quick, at least I dont have any projects on a deadline right now tho.

Copyright theft...

Was checking the Chinese website that's been a hotbed of copyright theft, and was pretty tickled to see that people there are deleting their postings of all the copyrighted patterns. There's a few people still posting them, but I noticed that there are more and more blank messages there.

Apparently they're a bit scared that they're going to get sued... Gosh, I wonder why that is? I thought they were fostering goodwill to the people of the world with all those free scans of other people's hard work. Surely a few hundred thousand dollars is a small price to pay for each instance of their "fostering goodwill".

I guess a few people there do understand that what they're doing is wrong, and they're now trying to cover their tracks so that the "copyright police" (aka Lawyers specializing in Intellectual Property Bearing Cease & Desist Orders) wont track back to them.

Assorted pics of some of my stuff...

This is my Grandma O'Neil. She's the one responsible for my crochet and yarn addiction. She passed away May 22, 2004. I crocheted the giant rectangle granny that's on her lap.

My first rectangle granny square. Crocheted in Red Heart Jeweltones yarn. It's also the first afghan I ever sold. Wish I'd kept it...

This is me! In a poncho that I crocheted last winter. Wore that thing most of last winter, it's pretty warm. Of course, I wore a sweatshirt and two t-shirts underneath it...otherwise I'd have frozen.

It's too hot to crochet...

It's been one of those days. Got up (at 8am, after going to bed at 3am)...took the dog outside...brought dog inside...dog gets sick inside...took dog outside again...

I think my wireless internet connection problems may be fixed.. My dad and I went to Best Buy this morning and bought new cordless phones. Instead of getting the standard 2.4 megahertz phones, which can interfere with my wireless connection, which ironically is ALSO 2.4 megahertz. We got a set of 5.8 megahertz phones. Made by motorola. Cant use them yet. They have to charge for 16hrs, but I did disconnect the old phones and take their batteries out. I'm not getting as many dropouts as I was. Hope this works.

Hoping to finish a couple of projects tonight so that I get some pictures of them. One is a poncho that I'm making for my aunt Janice's sister...the other is an American flag afghan that I've been done with for about a month now, but I still have to weave in the endless tails that are in it. I was planning on putting crocheted stars onto it, but after weaving all those tails in, I just cant bring myself to do any sewing of star appliques. So this will probably be my 17th or 18th American flag afghan that I've made, and I've yet to put stars in any of them. I'm thinking of keeping this afghan for myself. I'll post pictures of my projects later.

My other crochet project that I'm just starting is a sweater vest. I made one earlier this spring that turned out ok, but I screwed up a little on the front. That earlier vest, and this new one, are just products of my imagination...I have no real pattern for them. What I've done, is take a store bought fabric vest and I've just tried to follow the shape of the vest with what I'm crocheting. Works pretty good with some other stuff I've done, and that first vest turned out almost ok.

here's a picture of that first vest.

I need some sleep!

I'm so tired.. It's three in the freaking morning, and I'm still awake...granted, I havent attempted to go to bed yet, but I'm starting to think I should not have had that can of Vanilla Coke earlier... Maybe I should crochet till I feel sleepy?

Or, I could just sit here and ramble on about nothing... but, then, that would bore people. Who wants to sit and read some rambling nonsensical paragraph that some insomniac has written?

I want a Linksys wireless system!! The piece of junk I have now (an SMC Wireless router) keeps dropping out every two minutes.

think I'll attempt sleeping now...never know. It could work.

here's one of my more recent finished projects. It's the Bows & Arrows Poncho from Dot's blog (I'll post a link later)

My aunt Jan is the poncho model in this picture.

Testing...testing...is this thing working?

Just started my blog...I'll have to add stuff here later...right now I have to go crochet.