Happy Halloween!

Sent Obi-Wan on the bus this morning with our neighborhood kids, a black kittie, a red ninja and a zoro. By now the kids are already pumped up full of sugar, and the day has just started! Here is a little game while we sit around and wait for the trick o' treaters. Enjoy!

The Good Husband's Guide

Since we all had the pleasure of reading The Good Wife's Guide, I created the male version to match it. I'm not brave enough like Cindy to announce that I can use a wife, I'll settle with a husband for now.

The Good Husband's Guide (Copyright 2006)

1. Be home on time for dinner. If your wife says dinner at 6, be sure you arrange your day so you are ready to sit down at dinner table prior to that. If you are late, apologize ahead of time, and explain how such thing will not happen again.

2. Your wife probably took great care to plan ahead for this delicious and healthy meal. Show your appreciation. Thank her for making your favorite dish. Thank her for thinking in your best interest to make you a healthy meal.

3. Prepare yourself. Use your commute time to rest up so you are refreshed upon arriving home. Fix up your suit so every button and zipper is in the right place. You’ve been with a lot of work-weary people, don’t bring them home.

4. Be pleasant and show your happiness to be home. Pay attention to her, notice how she looks (does she have your favorite sweater on? That must be to please you.) and ask her about her day. Show support for her ideas and opinions, after all there are lots of idiots in the world and she might have encountered a couple in the day. It is your duty to protect her from everything bad and ugly.

5. Clear away the clutter. To start off, don’t leave any clutter around. If your wife has cleaned the house, show your appreciation for her effort by offering to hire a maid.

6. Children and dogs tend to leave messes around, be sure to pick up after them. Run you hand on table and counters and make sure the spilled juice is wiped up. Supervise the children to clean up after themselves when they are old enough. Their future wives will appreciate that.

7. Know your wife’s preferred temperature, and make sure the house is not too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer. This may require an understanding of the operation of a thermometer, take pains to learn to use it. After all, a comfortable wife is a happy wife.

8. Take care of the children. Make sure their hands are washed, teeth are brushed, hair is combed. Keep track of doctor’s visits. Maintain a good supply of seasonal clothing for children so they are not running around in high water pants and bring shame to your family.

9. Minimized noises. Take pains to set dishes and pots and pans down carefully so as they don’t knock around each other as if an earthquake has occurred.

10. Listen to your wife. You might have a dozen important things to tell her, but the moment of arrival is not the time. Let her talk first – remember, her topics of conversation are more important than yours, especially if they concern your children.

11. Make the evening hers. Never complain if dinner is late, instead do your share of the work and make her her favorite dish. Wish her a good time if she goes out for entertainment.

12. Your goal: make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility where your family can relax and connect.

13. Hold the complains and solve the problems.

14. Make her a comfortable spot in the living room with her favorite books, perfect lighting the way she likes and a cup of her favorite tea. Offer her a massage with the sole purpose of helping her relax.

15. Learn to make the bed her way. Remember how she likes her pillow and cover arranged. Learn when and how to change sheets. Try to understand the science of laundry.

16. Don’t question her actions or judgment. Believe in her. Remember, she’s the lady of the house and will always be fair and truthful. You have no right to question her.

17. A good husband knows his place – his home.

Some Knitting Ramblings

Some of you have noticed that I put a ticker on the bottom of my blog page to show the last time I bought yarn. I meant to put it on the side, but the graph won't resize itself to fit there, so it has to stay on the bottom.

Since the ticker is for yarn purchase, what I bought today probably shouldn't count. The Knitting Answer Book by Margaret Radcliffe. Very small book with plenty of reference for knitting tips and tricks, from cast on to finishing sweater. Would fit nicely in knitting bag. I had a 40% off coupon from Michael's, have to grab something if I'm already there, right?

Also got a Knitters magazine from Michael's the other day. My subscription ran out all by itself, and if I can find it at Michael's why bother with a subscription. I haven't been terribly thrilled about the magazine for the last couple of years, all those scarves just don't keep me warm.

 I re-did the band on the back of my De Clores the other night, still looks a little weird. But if I pull the fronts tighter together, make it a double breasted jacket, the back looks much better. Will bring it to our meeting at Yarndogs tonight to see what others think.

On Blogging

Interesting question on this website - To Love, Honor and Dismay -- about bloggers. Here is what I think who my readers are: Most of the "regulars" on my blog are my real life friends. When you have a job, kids and family, it's very hard to keep up with friends. We usually see each other once a month at a book club meeting but that's not nearly enough time to exchange all the gossips and whine about our husbands. One of the members started a blog last year and the rest is history. There are other friends of mine that I've met in cyberspace years ago and now turned into real life friends. We have arranged various meetings throughout the years, and know each other fairly well. My cyber friends are usually not much different than real life friends, as in, there are cranky ones and there are sincere, intelligent ones. One's education, mannerism and personality comes through via media, be it face to face interaction, email, or blog entries and comments. Blogging, just like Internet in itself, is a communication tool. Chainsaws are created to chop down trees, but some would rather cut up fellow human. It's up to us to decide how to use the tool.

The Wicked Mind of Pugs and Pug People

We pug people torture our pugs. After all, we are the ones there when the pug puppy decides to get up at 4am and stand on someone's head. Pugs do not have a purpose. They don't hunt, kill mice, or herd; they never bother to run very fast unless there is cheese waiting at the destination; for goodness sake, they don't even look all that good like a poodle to decorate their humans. Pugs are just pugs. They are fat, chunky, sturdy (choose your words), full of dignity. They have their ways in life, you can serve them, worship them, and be sneezed at. We pug people find ways to cope, and humor ourselves for being such pug slaves. And occasionally we humor our pugs too. Bucky never sits still long enough for a neat dress up portrait, nor would he tolerate any clothing on him, the collar is bad enough, thank you very much. But look at these pugs, look at the very last picture, how they manage to keep the fangs in the pug's mouth I'll never know. Those big googlie eyes .....

Sick, Sick, Sick again

For the third time since school started less than two months ago, Henry is sick again. This time scored 104 degrees. I'm on a contract, only get paid for every hour I work. Bill has been working 12 hour days for a project release, and has been sick for two weeks himself. My inlaws are recovering from major surgery. Our sitter is a full time student and I have her only two afternoons a week. Will try to work from home tomorrow, and hopefully get away with it. But I'm really running out of options. Say a prayer, or send some healing vibes, whatever you believe in, we need it.

De Colores in time out

De Colores was blocked and joined, every strip, sleeves and the body. Then there is the crochet band on the bottom of back which created this wonderful little tilt and made the back look more like tail. Think I can pass for a flying nun? Another view of the back, with Bucky wagging his tail in the background. My lovely husband, aka the photographer, wondered rather loudly if the jacket is long enough. Well, it would be perfect length if there is no tilt. A close up look of the band. I could have picked up too many stitches. The cure will require a trip to the frog pond and crochet the band another time. What do you think?

The Good Wife's Guide

Ladies, read The Good Wife's Guide and gain some insight on how to better serve your man. Oh please, we are not going There, yet. My poor husband having to live with a less qualified woman. He sure is living in the wrong time.

Update: If you followed a link from Cafe Mom to this blog, just know that the original Good Husband's Guide was posted on this blog first and I'm the original author. All Rights Reserved.

Henry's Summer, and my ramblings

Henry brought home his writing about his summer. It says: "Where did my feet take me this summer? I went to Indiana this summer. We went to see some of moms friends. We went on four air plans. It was an a exciteing trip. Moms friends were called the Feb99 group." My summer was a crash of events full of anger, frustration and desperation. Well, maybe not that bad, but the double layoff and job search and all the rejections are not for the faint of heart. I'm glad my son enjoyed the quick weekend getaway amid all the crisis, domestic and international. Speaking of Feb99, we got a nice fat package today from our friend Lori in Indiana, full of products to help us with Henry's eczema. And a cartoon shows a nekkid guy at the security checkout, hiding his delicacy with a boarding pass; when the lady says, "Boarding Pass please!" One thing I've learned -- friends and family, they are everything.

antimacassar

I did my final play with "the thing" last weekend and now it's officially done. Thanks to my knitting friend Jocelyn, the thing now has a name -- it's an antimacassar, which means I don't have to worry about taking that cushion cover off and washing it for a long time. The color I used is Kool Aid in grape flavor. The yarn is 50% wool, 50% nylon. With the fiber content, mustard yellow plus deep purple turned into dirty earthy brown. Not the most attractive color, but Trinket thinks it's just fine. Here are a few progress pictures for your enjoyment.

Pug Quiz

I set up a little quiz about pugs on Sploofus. This site is full of fun quizes and word games, and you can have daily trivia questions emailed to you and earn points. Don't know what you can do with those points yet, and it's fun to see the number grow. You have to sign up at the site to play. If you are extra nice to me, you'll certainly give me your email address, then I can send you the invitation and earn 10,000 referral points in my account. Let me know -- vhkeys at yahoo dot com.

The Thing Finished! but other knitting stalled

Casted off The Thing and weaved in all the ends. Haven't blocked it yet; I want to try over dye it, just to see how it might look.

De Colores body strips are all joined, but I find myself dragging my feet (well, hands, maybe) joining the sleeves to the body. Last night I sat through an entire episode of Desperate Housewives and news, with the sweater in my lap, and didn't knit one stitch. Although the joining is a three needle bind off, it's just not as interesting as knitting. Or is it the end of project hesitation? This is my "big" project which I only work on one at a time, I'm not sure what I want to do next.

My first pair of toe up socks, originally planned for Henry and now it's going to CIC. Done with the foot and ready to divide for heel flap.

I've knitted many pairs of socks the "regular" way; this is my first time to do a toe up and my brains are having trouble turning the 3-D picture upside down. Socks are my travel projects since I rarely need to thinking about what my hands are doing. Now you mean I have to focus? Until this is a chance to sit quietly and figure out the heel flap, the sock will remain stuck.

Happy Anniversary

This little boy had no idea what kind of trouble he'd get into This little girl had some ideas It's been lovely fourteen years And many more to come

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

How ignorant of me, I thought the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was last month. (didn't get a Chinese calendar this year, very dumb) It's also called Moon Festival, always on the fifteenth of the eighth month in the Luna year, which makes it the second full moon in the middle month of the autumn season. It's a time for families to gather and eat moon cakes and other delicacies. Many poem were written under the full moon, to celebrate its royal roundness and brightness. Happy Friday!

How did you manage to lose ... What?

I'm always cold in the winter, especially my legs, especially at night when I sit in the couch read or watch TV. Mind you, we do turn up the heat, enough that my husband would sit next to me in shorts and a T shirt, and I wear silk long johns and sweats and wool socks and pile up blankets on me, and I'm still cold. So for years I longed for a pair of nice and comfortable knitted wool pants. When I was growing up moms always knitted wool pants for their kids, different ones as they grew taller. The wool pants were worn between long johns and cotton outer pants, and hand washed twice a season. Last year I found this pattern on Bernat website for knitted pants, not the most attractive thing, but it's only for hanging around the house, warmth is number 1. So I pulled out some New Zealand wool, and knitted it up. Nice warm pants for a few months. The yarn is a little itchy even through the long johns (snob). When the weather got warm I forgot all about how cold I might be in the dead of the winter, and gave the pants to my mom, told her to go ahead and frog it and use the yarn for charity knitting. Fast forward to couple of weeks ago, there was a hint of fall in the air. I went to my mom looking for my wool pants. She denied any sighting of them. I searched her 2 sq. ft. closet, no pants, no yarn, and I know she hasn't produced any knit wear in that shade of green wool. She went so far as telling me she likes the color and the pants would be a nice fit for her if I'd offer them to her; and that she would not frog my knitting. The first cold front is upon us. I dug up my closet last night, no pants. Since they were produced for the sole purpose of keeping me warm at home, I didn't bother to take a picture. No pants, no image, no yarn, nada. Clearly there is a knitting project to be planned.

I have been You-Tubed

In our book club meeting last night I promised the non-knitters to show them this video on You-Tube that has been passed from one knitting group to another all over the world. While you are at it, you can search for all kinds of videos on You-Tube. I think I've watched all the ones with pugs in them, some of them very well put together, some are just a picture show from a dog park. I follow the curly tails nonetheless. My Bucky's video is officially off the blog. When I uploaded it I hit the "autoplay" button, so every time Lesley looked at my blog she got an earful of pug breath. So I tried to fix the code -- and like everything else I attempt to fix, it's completely gone. Now you can still find it here on Google Video where it was originally loaded.

De Colores Joining

Previous entries about De Colores Jacket are here and here. These pictures were taken Saturday morning. Both sleeves were joined and four strips on the body too. Since then the entire back is done, now around to the other side on the short strips, then it'll just be half the front. The three needle bind off join is much more fun than if I have to sew the strips together. In fact that much sewing might just push this sweater to the back of the closet. I switched the sleeve strips around a bit to get the best color combination. Interesting how the colors change in each skein of Silk Garden. The ones I used for the sleeves didn't have pink at all while the body has plenty.

Too Cute

These went into the last CIC package. The beanie babies add loads of cuteness while they attemp to crawl out of the pockets. I hope they reach the kids in decent shape. More yarn for CIC! From Elizabeth on the CIC email list. These will go to my mom next time I go visit her. Thanks Elizabeth!