To my Dad, who hates the Care Bears

Yikes...did he hate those bears. Image found here: http://www.mibepa.info/bb/bb009.htm

Ah, Father's Day. A day to celebrate fathers and fatherhood.

I hold countless memories of my Dad: afternoons spent fishing on Lake Julia, ridiculously long road trips, the failed experiment that was smelt spaghetti sauce (don't ask).  But, one of the most striking memories I have of him during the early years of my life was the intense white-hot loathing he had for the Care Bears.

My first memory of my father's Care Bear hatred stems from way, WAY back in the day; back when my family lived in central Wisconsin. I think I was between the ages of 4 and 5 at the time.

Before we dive deeper, Readers, some background:

I was born into a very, VERY large family. I have nine aunts and uncles on my fathers' side, and five on my mothers'. I have an army of cousins, and most of my extended family lived within a two hour drive of one other. I have to say that this was FANTASTIC growing up! I was never a lonely child, since all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were present for nearly all of our major life events.

So, when we found out that one of my older cousins was about to give birth to her first child, my parents packed us up and we drove to Rhinelander (my cousin, her parents, and my Grandparents live there) so we could be present when the baby was born. EVERYBODY on my Dad's side of the family was there!  The older family members decided that we, the younger cousins, might be a bit too overwhelming if we were to visit the hospital (plus, many of us  were too...impressionable to witness the miracle of life),  so we congregated at my Grandparents's house while we waited for the new arrival.

And it was then that my father's hatred of the Care Bears began.

A few of the older folks stayed behind in order to keep an eye on us munchkins. I think that there were around eleven of us little ones who stayed behind. My Dad was the only adult that I distinctly remember being present, along with a few of my uncles/aunts. Dad opted for phone duty; staying awake by my Grandmother's phone (this was before cell phones were a thing), waiting for news.

He was waiting by that phone from the time we arrived there (around eight in the evening), to the time we were put to bed in one of Grandma's guest rooms (around nine thirty), to the time we woke up to eat cereal and run around the house (around seven in the morning).

Since the weather was too cold and wet for us to play outside, we watched videos. And the only video that my Grandmother had at the time was this:

Image found here:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090799/

As my cousins and I sat there, mesmerized, in front of the TV, the fact that my father had only gotten about an hour's worth of sleep within the past day and a half started to manifest in his ongoing commentary on the film. I don't remember the exact words he used, but I remember quite a few of the things in the movie that he thought were just WRONG:

"Where on Earth are the camp counselors? Why don't the kids go to an adult if they keep on getting picked on?"

"What's the Care Bear Stare? Is that like a laser beam or something?"

"So...the just...care? Do they ever DO anything about whatever it is they care about?"

This went on and on.

The last straw for Dad was the...shall we say...climatic ending.

Image found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Care_Bears_Movie_II:_A_New_Generation

Again, I don't remember the exact words he used. It's been way too long. But I do remember my Dad turning the movie off, loudly proclaiming something to the effect of "This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen," and launching into a lecture about how "Caring about something won't ever solve your problems if you don't do anything about it."

That lecture lasted the whole afternoon, and the whole car ride home.

The above memory might seem like nothing more than the goofy memory of a frazzled 30-something projecting his exhaustion and grumpiness onto a bunch of candy-colored anthropomorphic bears, but I don't see it that way.

It was on that day that my Dad planted a seed in my brain, a seed that has grown into a skill that has served me well.

Through his hatred of the Care Bears, my father had unintentionally shown me the face of critical thinking.

Dad, throughout the years, you have taught me many things, and lead me to many wonderful places. You have always been there for me, and I have learned how to be a better person by simply watching you.

Even when you're hating on the Care Bears.

I love you Daddy!

Happy Father's Day, Readers!

Until next time!

<3

Pew-Pew-Pew, Pew-Pew!

Afternoon, Readers! Time for a knitting project update!

I bought a spectacular knitting pattern book a while back called Knits of Tomorrow, by the very fabulous Sue Culligan. The patterns designed here are delightfully retro-nerd!

My favorite of the books' patterns is definitely the Starship baby blanket: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/starship-afghan

I love this pattern so much, I'm knitting it even though there aren't any behbehs in my foreseeable future! Plus, I'm going to enter this adorable thing into the Washington State fair as soon as it's finished.

I officially registered myself as an exhibitor this morning. It was super easy and FREE, as well!

When the judging is all done, I'm going to send the Spaceship Blankie to a high-school buddy of mine, who just had a baby boy. <3

It's been a while since I've done real intarsia work. I know I like to talk about intarsia in the same way an adventurer would talk about fighting a fire-breathing dragon, but in all honesty, the technique is much simpler and straightforward than I like to think. I might need to re-do the orange/green rocket ship because I over-thought it and made my intarsia links WAY more complicated than they needed to be; as a result of my stubborn "I can do this, no need to look the technique up!" mindset, there's a small row of green/orange lines along the left side of the patch (right where the orange/green meet the dark blue).

I've got six patches finished, and ten left to go!

Until next time, Readers!

<3

Return of Haiku Friday

I'm Angry. Sad. Fazed. 

But, I do not feel Surprised. 

That terrifies me.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Police-respond-to-shooting-near-Seattle-Pacific-University-262043001.html

Lace and more lace!

Afternoon, Readers!

Look what I finished:

Pattern found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pineapple-lace-parasol-wedding-stick-umbrella-crochet-pattern-in-pdf

I've been wanting to make a crochet lace parasol ever since I saw these patterns pop up on Ravelry. I think this is the largest piece of lace that I've ever made!

The pattern itself is fairly simple (pineapple lace is quite easy, just single crochets and chains, mostly), but the actual crochet/construct process was a bit of an adventure:

I had to find a cheap stick umbrella to sacrifice to the cause, and I ended up finding a cheap one for sale at Daiso Japan. Cost me all of $1.99!

And because the umbrella base cost me all of $1.99, getting the lace on the umbrella skeleton was...interesting.

The instructions included in the crochet pattern gave some simple instructions for breaking down the sacrificial umbrella: according to the designer, just cutting away the fabric and saving the tips from the ribs would do the trick.

My umbrella would not give up its fabric without a fight.

There was a circle of tightly folded blue nylon underneath my umbrellas' ferrule that simply would. not. budge. I must have spent about a week fretting over how to get the fabric out without completely destroying the umbrella base; but about an hour and half of constantly cutting and picking at it with my pinking shears and tweezers eventually got it to slide off.

Now that I know that I CAN make this fabulous thing...I'm going to make it again! As happy as I am with the parasol, I want to make another one to enter into the state fair in September!

Parasol 2.0 is going to be classed up a bit! Can't wait to show the results!

Until next time!

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometimes declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; 

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; 

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; 

So long as men can breathe

Or eyes can see,

So long lives this, 

And this gives life to thee. 

In which I realize that my thumb isn't as green as I'd like...

One of the best features of our new apartment, Readers, is the fact that we have a balcony.

Since this picture was taken, the tulips died. They have been replaced with tomato plants. 

I LOVE our balcony!

It's so wonderful to just have the option of enjoying my morning coffee outside if I want.

My husband and I are in LOVE with gardening. Flowers, herbs, vegetables...one of the things that my husband and I share is that we both relish in a feeling of granola-esque smugness and delight when we realize that we can produce our own food.

I'm sad to say that since picture has been taken, this pea plant shriveled up and died. (The one pea we got off of it was yummy, though). 

We've been putting together what our landlord has called our "balcony forest" since March. Unfortunately, in my eagerness to get started, I ordered and started planting our herbs/veggies WAY too early.

Readers, you guessed it...the cilantro and basil died. The dill seems to be on it's last legs as well...

And as you can tell by the pictures above, Readers,  many of my plants came up to a LOVELY start...but shriveled up as soon as the weather got warmer (except for that one pea vine, though. I think the pea vine died because there was a nasty crack at the bottom). I'd say that, sadly, only about a half of what I originally planted survived.

I wouldn't say that I'm an accidental plant killer. but my formerly glorious green thumb has gotten a bit rusty as of late. I'm just not used to container gardening, I guess...

Luckily for us, a few of the veggies we started were hearty enough to make it. I bought a spearmint plant that's starting to look like it has doubled in size AT LEAST, and the two other pea vines I stagger-planted seem to be coming up nice and healthy.

I guess that it helps when you plant them when it's warm enough. Who knew?

Plus, John built me a vertical garden, where we planted onions and butter lettuce. The lettuce seems to be doing okay (as long as I keep it watered), but the onions are going NUTS in there! I don't know if it's because of the soil or the location, but my green onions are shooting up like little green rockets!

Yes, that is an old shoe organizer. We punched holes in the bottom of each pocket for drainage. Since this has been taken, we've harvested two butter lettuce heads ("Tom Thumb" variety, only about the size of a baseball). 

I get just so much energy and joy out of planting things.

If I had to choose a favorite plant in our garden, it would definitely be our cherry tree seedling:

About a year ago, John found a cherry pit on the ground that looked like it had sprouted. On a whim, he planted it in a small pot and put it on our windowsill.

Sure enough, it grew! And it seems to be coming out of its winter hibernation! Since the above picture was taken (these were all taken mid-April), a teeny-tiny branch seems to be coming out of one side, and at least three more green leaves are visible!

I've taken to calling the lil' sprout our "metaphor tree".

Because we love and care for it in the same way we love, care, and work at our marriage <3

Anyways, If you're wondering where I've been during the past month, Readers, now you know! I've been on my balcony, up to my elbows in potting mix and fertilizer!

Until next time!

<3

Speak Friend, and....um....something knitting related!

Hullo, Readers!


Yikes...I'm getting terrible about keeping my blog updated!

The Year of the Sweater has taken a bit of a detour, ever since I started THIS:

BEHOLD, the never ending Evenstar Shawl!

Pattern found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/evenstar-shawl

I started this project about a month ago; all things considered it's been a fairly quick knit. I'm still working on my lace skills and shaping skills, and as such I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants with this pattern.

It's amazing how much your pattern can get mucked up by missing just ONE yarn over.

It's also amazing how much a bumpy bus ride can mess up your knitting! Yikes!

I'd like to level up on my lace skills and eventually enter something into the Washington State Fair.Once I finish this (there's NO WAY that the finished project here is State Fair worthy), I'll get some more yarn and give it another go, if I'm feeling more comfortable with the lace work.

Until next time, Readers!