Goat Fest

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Prepare yourselves for the year of the Ox. To celebrate, we went skiing. We drank hot buttered rum in the lift lines and got down with O.P.P. (Yeah, you know me!)

To complete the trip, we all threw out our best goats.
Here's the game... Pull your lips straight out, stick your tongue straight out, and try to make a noise like a goat... Fun!







(Shaun was driving... gotta keep the hands on the wheel...you know...)




It's 10 57 now... we're all pretty pooped... So for those of you who are hitting it strong, good luck with the whole countdown thing... We'll see you in the morning! Peace!

Cell Phones are Ringing in the Pockets of the Dead

I heard this song today called 'Cell Phones'. The line in the song is 'something...something...and cell phones are ringing in the pockets of the dead." It made me really stop and think about the materialism around me.
Where did this need for meaningless stuff come from? Or maybe I shouldn't say meaningless... just unnecessary really. Is it our nation's need for speed that started all this collecting? We don't really need cell phones, right? But you can get what you want a lot faster with a cell phone. Computers, Internet, and all associated accessories... We really can live without them. It just takes a little longer to get what you want. Hand write it. It's not as fast, but I think it is more meaningful. It takes more time to do it, so maybe you have more time to think about what you are actually writing. Go to the library and look it up. Get some exercise. We can get by without Internet. It just takes a little longer.
Fast cars...large machines...everything must go faster or have more power.
Do these things really make our lives less complicated? I feel like the more stuff I get attached to, the busier my life becomes. And other people expect me to be that way. I am expected to answer my phone every time it rings. I am expected to drive a vehicle as a convenience to other people. I am expected to know how to send a fax and work a computer. I realize that these types of things are what our generation runs on...but is it necessary?
Must we move so fast?
I look forward to a day when people do what needs to be done, and maybe it takes them a day to do it. Maybe it could take a week to find the information I want. That's alright with me. I'm tired of rushing rushing rushing to get 'important' things done. What makes them so important, anyway?

Some friends of my grandparents, a couple of old ranchers, were once asked what the most difficult part of their ranching lives was. They replied by telling stories for hours about how the switch from manual labor to 'modern day mechanics' nearly killed them.

Well... maybe it did kill them. Maybe it's killing us. Why can't we just all slow down a little bit?

The Day After

WooHooo! Christmas is over! (Well... almost... I have to go to one more party tomorrow.) I made it through. I am such a scrooge. But I did get up in the middle of the night and stuff all the stockings! Fun times. And I did find one good Christmas video that gave me a good laugh. I shared it with everyone I know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooc5eJc5SHA

Check it out... very fun.


Merry Christmas. Time to bring in the Year of the Ox!

Suka is a Goat...

... he'll heat anything. Suka ate our toothbrush today. I told Shaun not to leave it on the bedstand because Suka can reach it there. And God knows Suka LOVES toothbrushes! He loves to eat the heads off of them. And he has eaten many toothbrushes, including one he stole directly out of a friend's pocket. So... knowing that Suka is a toothbrush eater, Shaun failed to heed my warning and left our only toothbrush on the bedstand. Suka ate it.


It is so hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit... Typically around this time of year I like to hide out and watch mass amounts of alcohol flow through our house. I'm usually the one clearing the channel for it to flow. But I did give in and hang a few Christmas decorations for us...




Maybe with any luck Santa will forgive my humbug-ness and fill our stockings. Hopefully with whiskey...

Not Leaving the House Today...

I started my newest project yesterday... I'm not really sure what I'm doing, so I'm just going to go for it, and work with it as I go...
Picture it... these beautiful things here... so soft and amazing with all that beautiful yarn... ALLLLL the way up! From finger tips to shoulders! Ahhhhhh how heavenly...
This is the underside of the arm warmers. I am using the Double Vine stitch pattern from the book 'A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns' by Barbra G. Walker.


This will be the top of the arm warmer... The Embossed Twining Vine Leaf pattern from the same book.

Ahh... contented sigh... Noro is my favorite. And this blend of wool and silk is just too beautiful.
I can't wait to wear these!

I started spinning some fibers I've had for a very long time...
This is some very beautifully died wool I bought at a craft fair in Anchorage. I don't know how to use my spinning wheel very well, and it's out of service anyway at the moment, but I am having a fun time trying to master the drop spindle. I had it dialed this summer. I am just fascinated by how different every fiber is to spin, even from one sheep to the sheep standing next to it...

I also started to spin some of this ugly stuff. It is in a pretty raw form and has been washed, but not much else. I have been carding it and sorting it and all of that stuff...
I started spinning it and realized what I huge mistake I was making. My mom had it in storage for years, and I've probably had it for another two years... It is so old the lanolin has all dried out and now feels very sticky when I work with it. The yarn it's spinning is ok, but being somewhat novice, it's alot more difficult for me to work with, and it will definitely need to be washed well when finished. I'm thinking I will just save it and make something felted.
As with all the fibers I have, spun yarn and otherwise, I will just have to wait until it reveals it's purpose to me... When the time is right, this sticky ugly old ball of fluff will tell me what it wants to be. Maybe in a dream vision or a gust of wind or something... ha.

AND... Cutest Dog of the Day Award goes to... SUKA!!!! Sixth time this week...

This is a good one... These people have these large spools for tables. This one was probably about a foot off the ground. Some people stashed their bags and jackets there. Suka was walking bye and I guess he decided he would just rest there for a while. So he just layed down right there on top of it all, stuck out his back leg for balance and stuck hif front feet straight out in front. What a dork.

13 Above Zero!

I did ski today!

And as you can tell, I felt very intensely about it at the time...


Shaun, not so much...but the mountains were nice.




The temperature on the mountain was 13. That is alot warmer than the -10 it was on Monday, and the -30 it was at my mom's house. (She only lives 12 miles from us.) So we went skiing. And it was great.



Shaun's feet got cold pretty fast so we only stayed for a couple hours. The snow was good though. It's always good at Bridger...


I took Harvey and Suka to the park.
They had a pretty fun time frolicking in the snow.



And I'm training Harvey to be a pointer! Ok...so I'm not...

Hanging out in the park, I realized how crazy that play equipment must have looked when I was five. I'm surprised I even played on it then, because it's kinda scary!





Tomorrow is Shaun's birthday. Sshhhh... don't tell him... I made Angel Food Cake from scratch... like his grandma used to do... I made a mini one to feed to him as breakfast-in-bed...
I just hope mine is as good as grannie's!

Gettin' Some Tail

Sunday we made tails. Then we partied with other people with tails to celebrate the departure and relocation of our good friend Kyle, who is moving to Honduras on Friday. Or somewhere like that... Costa Rica... Panama...?

Derek had so much fun making his tail that he went cross-eyed!

I made my tail out of shredded pants seams, yarn, and wire...

Shaun wanted a little piggy tail, so I crocheted some home spun gray wool around a piece of wire and curled it up.




This picture's blurry, but you get the idea...






I have been having some trouble figuring out easy addition of pictures on here. I can't really do it the way I want to do it, so I am copying Mama Roja's blog style for now. Text, Picture, Text, Picture... it seems to work just fine. I will just have to play with the settings and stuff more until I get it dialed. I will have plenty of time to do that though, since it's impossible to go outside right now. I would like to ski, and I made plans with friends to ski yesterday and tomorrow. However, I canceled my Monday ski date due to a hangover and a temperature of -10 on the hill. Shaun had to cancel his ski date today because the car just wouldn't start. And I've already canceled my ski date tomorrow because the temperature today is still in the negatives. Annnnnnddd.... it's lookin' the same tomorrow...
I even canceled a climbing date today for an opportunity to sit in a sauna. The climbing gym is nice, but it's not as warm as a sauna!
I do think I've discovered the warmest way to get to work, though. I bike. Sounds horrible, right? Biking to work in negative degree weather. I thought so too. But actually, after you put on so many layers, then a hat or two, then wrap up your face in a blanket sized scarf, double the mittens, and add some ski goggles, a five minute ride to work gets a person pretty worked!
Turns out I enjoy the exercise and its a lot less of a pain in the ass than scraping off the car.
And it gives everyone a laugh to see me all bundled up like that. A good way to start the day, I say...
I love endorphins!