Booooo!

My favorite yarn store in Portland is closing! ARGH!

I swung by on Sunday to buy yarn for two projects I want to start (I know, hello? ... REALLY, there is going to be knitting again? GET OUT!!!! :)) and saw this sign:

I walk in all befuddled.

Me: "uhhh, why does the sign say 'store closing sale'?????"

Salesperson: "yeah, we're closing"

Me: (*blink, blink*)

Me: "but .... whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???"

Salesperson: (*hem, haw*) "oh, several reasons, ya know" (*shuffles off*)

Me: (in head). "wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

But then after looking up and noticing all the yarn...

Me: (in head) "holy shit! All this yarn is 40% off!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whooo hoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!" (*insert happy dance*)

And about $100 later I walked out! YAY for new yarn! (though really, "boo" for store closing!)

So any local Portland knitters who were unaware.... Lint is closing and everything in the store is currently 40% off! And I'm sure the discount will increase as time marches on although the yarn selection will surely decrease as well. So the sooner you get there the better ..... for them and for you! (oh, alright ... for ME too! Because the less yarn there is there, the less I'll be tempted to go back and buy! So help a girl on a budget out, would ya?!! Pretty please? With cherries on top??? :))

p.s. oh, and really, there may be pictures of knitting stuff on this here site again soon!!!!! HOLY COW! I hope you were sitting down for that news cuz that there is quite the shocker I know! So stay tuned! :)

In honor of the new Simpson's movie coming out...

.... here's a photo of CJ and me in our kitchen hoping upon hope that some decent food will magically appear in the fridge!!!! :)

Hee hee hee. I know, I know ... you want to Simpsonize yourself too! So here's the link to the site! Have fun!

Speaking of copying people....

.... Ms C was just in town!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYY! And she made the mistake of showing me the cutest little notepad and telling me where she got it. So now I'VE got one for my purse too!!!! Whoo hoooo!!! (HEY! ... but it's a different color, Ms C, so maybe it's not really copying you at all?!! :))

But here, look, see ... isn't it too cute?!!! (sorry for the crappy pictures!)

And then, and THEN .... we went to a bbq and her friend S made the most delicious mini cheese ravioli pasta salad! And so now I will be copying that TOO!!! (mwaa haa haa haa!)

Oh, oh ... and I copied the rest of the world by buying and reading the new Harry Potter book! I popped into a bookstore Saturday afternoon looking to buy a different book and found a pile of the Harry Potter at 40% off! So I figured, what the hey, since my HP Book Loaner has since moved to North Carolina (bah!). And I had a backup HP Book Loaner (always good to carry a spare) but she got called off to London and I'm not sure if she remembered to pack her ark* before she went so who knows if she would make it back before someone spoiled the book's ending for me.

I think that's it lately with the copying of other people. Let's see, T2 (check), Ms C (check), her friend S (check), Rest Of World (check). Yep! That's it! See?.... not too shabby!

[that's right folks, TWO posts in one day! See, miracles DO happen!!! :)]

*massive flooding there for those of you who didn't get that ark reference!

Pop Quiz!

I won't tell you which of my two cats is the intelligent and fearless one, and which one is afraid of her own shadow (*cough*Emma*cough*). But let's see if you can tell from the following scenario:

I bring home a drinking water fountain* for the cats. Neither has ever seen one before. I assemble it, fill it with water, and plug it in for the first time. I call each cat over:

Reaction of Cat #1:

"Hot damn! Running water in a bowl!!! This is GENIUS!!! Mom, you rock!" (*slurp, slurp, slurp*)

Reaction of Cat #2:

"HOLY F!!!! What the HELL is THAT?!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I know, I know ... it's a tough call. But I have faith in you! ;)

*yep, I have copied you AGAIN, T2! Hopefully you take it as "imitation is a form of flattery" instead of "holy crap, it's time to get a restraining order!!!!!" :)

So yesterday some folks and I took a guided tour of the Oregon Zoo with a Cherokee Indian priestess. As we walked along, the priestess pointed out the significance of certain animals and how their appearance at different times in your life might have a specific spiritual meaning.

It was pretty interesting in that some of the animals did strange things when certain people in our group approached. Like one beaver would not leave one woman alone. Kept following her and putting its nose to the glass wherever she was at. The priestess indicated that the beaver symbolizes a builder and that this person might want to make sure she wasn't building herself into a corner somehow in her life.

Another had a huge swarm of fish pay extra special attention to her. I didn't catch the significance of that.

And another had two monkeys staring and screeching at her. The monkeys indicating foolishness.

And me?? Well, I had a billy goat licking on my hand for quite awhile. Which apparently doesn't have any great spiritual significance .... other than perhaps I was a big salt lick in a past life??

Sigh.

I am, perhaps, not so good at this spiritual stuff. The priestess was speaking about the giraffes having long necks because they are more godlike, closer to god, etc. And I couldn't help but think "or maybe they have long necks because their food source is the leaves off trees!!". Yeah, me and my logical mind are going to hell. Quick, send a hand basket!!!

But until I go to hell ..... I've got pictures (of course!)!!! Here's my favorite! Nothing like being up close and personal with a polar bear!!

And here are a few others:

"I like big butts and I can not lie...."

"Yeah, Kat, you're going to hell." - God-raffe

Hope y'all had a great weekend too! And I wasn't kidding about that hand basket! ;)

An Ellen for your very own!

Get-out!!! I was so excited at lunch today when I was looking to purchase a card for a friend and stumbled across a whole selection of Ellen DeGeneres cards!!! Whoo hooo! Who knew?!!!!! I didn't realize she had a line of cards out! They were so cute! And I'm geeky enough that I stopped and read each and every one!

And though they didn't have one for the topic I needed, there are a bunch of birthday ones I liked. So for those of you with birthdays approaching ... you've been warned!!! ;)

Words of Wisdom

I just heard the greatest quote yesterday and so I thought I would share. The speaker was talking about the "disipline of respect" and said:

"You are the master of your words til you speak them -- then they are the master of you."

How true is that??? I love it!

And another little tidbit I found today, supposedly a quote from Danny Thomas to his daughter Marlo is:

"Put blinders on and run your own race"

Aren't those both great?? Now if only I could learn to live by those words ... ;)

I'll be working on it! :)

Happy Monday!!!

Friday Roundup - with pictures!

So I'm catsitting for my friend T2 and her hubby C and y'all ... T2 is a HOOT!

So they have this humungo entertainment system in their media room (yep, I said "media room" ... how's that for hi-faluten?! :)) and I said I would probably kick it there and watch one of their umpteen movies to spend some time with their cats each time I came over.

So C goes about pulling out all eleventeen hundred remote controls to show me which buttons to push where and in which order so I will know how to watch a dvd when I catsit.

It went something like this:

C: "This remote turns on the receiver....."

Me: (in my head) "receiver?????"

C: "...and on this one you'll want to press 'input' and then choose 4 if you want a dvd or 6 for cable...."

Me: (in my head) "oh god, 'input'?? And then which number was dvd????"

T2: "And this one is for tv volume also."

C: "This is the cable one...."

C: "....And this one controls the dvd ...."

T2: "Here's the actual dvd recorder ... you just put the dvd in here"

Me: "Wait! ... where did you just push to get the dvd to open??"

C: "And this remote works the lights..."

Me: (in my head) (and maybe aloud) "Lights?? GAHHHHHHHH!!!"

Me: "Okay, maybe I'll just bring a book to read instead??" (*whimper*)

At which point T2 said not to worry about it because she'd write up a Remote Control Cheat Sheet for me!

And she did!!! Look how cute!!! She did pictures and everything .... I couldn't stop laughing!!!

Ah too funny ... you've got to love a friend that will still love you even though you are perhaps completely and utterly Electronically Challenged!

Anyway, they also provided me with a fridge full of my favorite drinks in the whole wide world!!!!

Mmmm, mmm, mmm! So sweet! I am so spoiled!

And so I popped over Wednesday to hang with the cats for a bit and I'm happy to report that after a few trials and errors (word of advise: don't let your big fingers accidentally push buttons on the remotes not listed on your cheat sheets. Weird things happen and panic ensues.) ... SUCCESS!

So I watched Smokin' Aces starring Jeremy Pivens (above), Ben Affleck, and Ryan Reynolds (mmm, mmm, mmm ... see below).

And as you can see, one of the cats (Peeps) joined me. A grand time was had by all and I'm pretty sure I was able to turn everything off afterwards!!! (fingers crossed!)

..............................................

Speaking of grand times .... Miss CJ has been living it up on the deck lately!

She managed to find a few inches amongst my flower pots to lay and sprawled out in style! I especially like her "bed head" ("deck body"??) in the second one. And the fact that she learned my "if you stand next to something big, you look smaller and more petite" theory in that last one! ;)

After the sun moved off, she chose to steal MY chair instead....

So I annoyed her with endless pictures til she let me sit down too!

Not to be outdone, Emma came outside too and took time to smell the .... well, bamboo?

Oh well, she almost got it right. My "special" child. :)

..............................................

To celebrate the 4th, what's more "American" then heading out to a baseball game and downing some hotdogs, nachos, peanuts, and whatever else the food vendors bring your way??!!

That's right ... nuthin! :)

So that's what a couple of friends and I did.

Now Portland doesn't have much in the way of major league sports (I try to overlook the Blazers) but we do have a couple of farm teams .... one hockey and one baseball. The baseball is a Triple A farmteam for the San Diego Padres and they are called the Portland Beavers.

The weather was beautiful on the 4th and the stadium where they play is nice....

......the scoreboard is a hoot (they still do it "manual" so if you click on the picture you can actually see the person sticking their head out through the 10th inning slot to watch if the ump will next call a ball or a strike!)......

......I love the view (most people may find that Oregonian building ugly but I like it)......

.....there be fireworks after the game!!........

.....and the field is full of athletic men in tight pants!!!

Needless to say, I had a great time! ;)

As I hope y'all did!

..............................................

In closing, I thought I'd leave you with this Living Will from Maxine! It's a hoot ... I hope everyone enjoys! Have a great weekend ...........and I'll catch you on the flipside!!!

I, MAXINE , being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means. Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it, or lawyers / doctors interested in simply running up the bills. If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to ask for at least one of the following:

A Glass of Scotch
Chocolate
A Margarita
Chocolate
A Bag of M&Ms
A Glass of Scotch
Chocolate
Chicken fried steak
Chocolate
Mexican food
Chocolate
French fries
Chocolate
Pizza
Chocolate
Ice cream
A Pint of Scotch
Chocolate
Chocolate
A Fifth of Scotch
Chocolate

Then it should be presumed that I won't ever get better.
When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my appointed person and attending physicians
to pull the plug, reel in the tubes, let the "fat lady sing". . and call it a day!

Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol!!!

That's right, Mr Taylor Hicks from American Idol fame was in Portland on May 11th playing at The Crystal Ballroom. Y'all ... he ROCKED!

I know, I know ... shocked, aren't you?

I know I was.

I mean, I loved him on American Idol but mainly for his personality because his music style, though good, isn't what I normally listen to.

But ever the faithful music fanatic, I decided to give his cd a shot.

I didn't love it.

I mean, it was good and all ... but not what I was going to grab to play when driving down the road. Because, when I drive down the road I like to rock out. Or at least to be caught up emotionally in the music.

His cd .... eh.

So after a listening or two .... back in the case it went.

However, I wasn't opposed to seeing him up close and personal. I mean, he IS adorable. And single! (what? :)) So hey ... what the hell, right??!

So my Sis2 and friend T2 and I headed down to check it out.

Folks, his concert was AWESOME!

"That's right, I'm #1!"

First of all, it started on time! Now, those of you frequent concert goers know this is a rarity. These rock folks aren't opposed to just wandering out whenever they darn well feel like it! So I'm used to waiting around forever for the main act to take the stage (Axl Rose being by far THE WORST (I think he took the stage about midnight and played til 2am ..... on a school night*.... sigh)).

And another bonus was that he didn't have an opening band! So when 8pm rolled around, the lights went out and Taylor appeared! Voila!! That, my friends, is my kinda concert**!

But then ... but THEN .... I could not believe the energy in the show! He handpicked a phenomenal backing band.

There was like 6 or 7 or them and they were fabulous musicians and so interesting to watch (one in particular ... ahem!).

And the entire show had a great rockin' jazz feel to it! SO MUCH ENERGY!!! I mean, seriously, how can you go wrong when you've got cowbell??!!! :)

"I gotta have more cowbell"

So really, I can NOT recommend his live shows more. We were talking to a roadie after the show (what?? ;)) and he said that a live concert dvd was being filmed (elsewhere) so to keep an eye out for that in the near future! Whoo hooo! I'm tellin' you, folks, either get the dvd and/or check out his show next time he swings through town because his live shows are so worth it!

In fact, here's a quick, quick, quick, quick, QUICK view (I have a much better video clip but apparently the file is too large to post (sigh) so I can only show you this one). But can't you just feel the energy....



Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol!!!!

*yeah, it's official ... I'm old!!!!!!

** again with the "old"

A Little Friday Humor

Jokester: Knock, knock.

Audience: Who's there?

Jokester: Interrupting pirate.

Audience: Interrup.... [Jokester]: ARRRRRRRRR.

HAHAHAHAHA. Heard that on Last Comic Standing last night and I had to pause my dvr recording because I was laughing so hard. I know, I know ... juvenile sense of humor ... what can I say?? :)

Happy Friday, everyone!!

Add "Crazy Plant Lady" to my resume!!

Oh man, my poor condo neighbors ... they do NOT know what they are in for!!!! You see, I have been missing my garden lately. You remember, the garden I grew at my old house under the tutelage of Ms C?

Ah memories.....

And now that it is spring/summer and everything is a'bloomin' out and about in Portland... I've found myself wandering amongst nurseries yearning for some of my old plants ("yearning" in only a platonic sense, of course!!!!).

I mean, my deck does have a lavender and a jasmine in pots which I brought over from my old house and those are doing well. (they'll be doing REALLY well once they start bloomin' (come onnnnnn Jasmine!!!)). And I also have a few gigantor bamboos I purchased from a neighbor who was moving out.

But yet I yearn.

I yearn for the old. (hello? Issues with letting go??)

But thankfully, I do not have issues with "shopping" and so I went on a shopping spree for more plants!!

Only, I couldn't bring myself to buy "normal" container style plants because I loved the plants I used to have! And so I purchased some of those.... you know, the ones which should be planted in a yard, grow really really big, are perennials, like full sun and, did I mention, they grow really, REALLY big?!?!

Heh, heh!

So I'm not sure how well they will do in containers on my only partially sunny deck but .... see those big white daisies in the picture above?? Yeah, I bought those. And those tall, purple coneflowers? Yep, those too. And in the very front, the lavender color?? ... that's catmint. My cats loved it (yes, shamefully, in the "wink,wink" fashion) and so I bought one of those for them too (see, "Crazy Cat Lady" still stands!!!). And I may have bought one or two other plants (what? :))

Anyway, so if all those grow well there won't be room on my deck to sit. Seriously!!!!! BUT ... does The Crazy stop there?? Oh no, no, my friends.

Because yesterday I was out on my lunch hour looking for this one particular flower I still wanted which would "finish" off the deck, so to speak. I didn't find it. BUT ... I did find a butterfly guara that I had.to.have!!! A butterfly guara which also grows Freakishly Large!!! Hee hee hee.

But wait, there is more to this Crazy! So I bought the guara during my lunch hour which meant that I had to leave it in my car for the rest of the work day and so I was concerned that the car might get too hot. So I cracked a window for it! HAHAHA (*slaps knee in merriment*). Yeah, there's the true crazy, my friends.

So send help. OR ... better yet, send more potting soil! Because I think it's still early in the planting season and someone just mentioned something called "plant stands"! ;)

The Harlot Does Portland

So, now that we are off the topic of China (*insert clapping and cheering*), back to Real Life!

I went and saw The Yarn Harlot speak at Powell's Books on Friday June 8th. It was a Packed House, let me tell you! Here's a picture showing part of the room.

Isn't that crazy!!?!! And there were more people to my right. As well as other folks turned away at the door due to overcrowding! I tell ya, it was standing room only with 45 minutes still til she was scheduled to speak. Luckily we all had knitting to while away the wait. I found myself knitting on a sock which (oddly) saw the light of day the last time I saw Stephanie speak. (and I wonder why it isn't finished yet! :))

Here's the Harlot upon arrival. I think it's so cute that you can barely see her over the massive podium!

And her obligatory sock pictures:

(Sorry for the blurry pictures. Apparently my camera has yet to recover from its workout in China!)

Anyway, and last but not least, I took video!!!! (shhhh, don't tell!)

So for any of you who have never seen her speak, here is a little blurb! She is so cute and funny, and is seen here talking about a possible wool shortage!!! (too cute!)



So, as always, a grand time had by all! Even for those of you Muggles (non-Knitters) out there ... I recommend checking her out next time she is in town. She truly is a hoot!

People, Places and Things ...... oh my?

Okay, so apparently I took WAY too many pictures in China and so maybe I'll pare this post down to just People. Because if I add on Places and Things I'm certain Blogger will disown me. As will all y'all! ;)

Anyway, I loved people watching there. And everyone was so sweet. And interesting. And the lifestyles and surroundings were just a photographer's dream!

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite photos from China.

Cute kids! These taken at the Chongqing Zoo:

Just look at that little girl in the first pic with her hair!!! GAH! ... sooo cute! I smile every time I look at her!

And I asked Gramps if I could take a picture of his grandbaby because I wanted to show you the No Diaper Phenomenon I found everywhere (seriously, didn't see even one diaper. Just bare bottoms). But Gramps figured I'd want a front shot so turned the baby towards me and I couldn't figure out how to non-pedophiley explain that I wanted a picture of the baby's bare butt!! So I didn't .......and settled for just this Cute Picture instead. :)

But at least in this next one you can kind of see the opening in the baby's clothing. No diaper. Which may or may not explain the stain down the mom's leg. Just sayin'.

Taken in Chongqing's Old Town

My favorite cute kid! He was hanging out at a dock when we were in port one morning and I snapped this picture through the cruise ship's dining room window.

I think his mom worked on the docks. Here he is watching as his mom worked on the fishing nets.

We visited a kindergarten class. They sang the ABC song for us!

In the port of Fengdu, a vendor carrying her baby:

Also in Fengdu, a vendor baby! (hello?! Labor Laws???)

And last but not least with regard to pictures of Young 'Uns (how you hanging in there, Ms C?? :)), I found these girls while I was wandering the streets of Xian. They were playing Chinese jump rope (would that just be called "jump rope" there????) and I wanted to catch a picture but they came running over to pose when I pulled the camera out. Love it though. They were so sweet!

Okay, on to adults! Here's one of the Peking Opera stars gearing up for the night's performance:

A gentleman outside a club in the Hutong area (took that one while cruising by in a rickshaw!):

Our group heading into the Forbidden City in Beijing on the only rainy day we encountered on the whole trip!

Check this out. In Chongqing, motorcycle taxis!!! (no helmet for the passengers)

(sorry for the reflection ... taken through the bus window)

In the Yu Yuan Garden in Shanghai. There was sweeping going on EVERYWHERE in China. I even saw one person sweeping the highway! (seriously!). And this broom is the style they all used.

A street scene outside our bus window in Wuhan. Not sure why the man was standing around in his underwear ... but now he's on the internets (that'll teach him!! :))

I took this outside of the Summer Palace in Beijing:

And this in the Hutong area of Beijing:

On the Li River outside of Guilin:

A seemingly popular way to carry things in Old Town of Chongqing. Looks like Moving Day in that second picture...

In fact, my theory is that you could hire these guys to carry things for you. I saw some men sitting around with some of these poles nearby. I wish I had some of them locally ... I've always got some stuff I could use schlepped around!!! :)

Also in Old Town, this picture:

A Chinese coworker believes the sign indicates this is a dentist's office. The question is .... is this the waiting room ... or are these the dentists??? :)

And last but not least, two pictures of men playing a game. I figured it to be Chinese Checkers which is why I snapped the pictures. Hee heee ... Chinese Checkers ... in China! HA! (seriously, I'm like 12 ... I know this!! :))

Outside Summer Palace and in Chongqing's Old Town, respectively.

Okay, that will do for awhile. I think we've all had our fill of China pictures. Next up ... something non-China related!! :)