tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52425595201820147562024-03-12T19:37:22.051-07:00BunnyMom's BlahgMy place to yap about various unrelated topics.BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-49127794868391436952014-01-03T21:41:00.003-08:002014-01-03T21:41:26.568-08:00Silly Things I Think<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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First off, Happy 2014 everyone! Hope your holidays were great!<br />
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When I was little, I would get birthday and Christmas cards from my grandmother, which always depicted a cozy little scene of some woodland creature family staying warm in their hollow tree home. Usually there was a fireplace, a quilt and a pot of tea. So, now that we have a bit of snow, we always joke about how all the trees are filled with these little woodland creature families by the fire with their tea and quilts. Never mind that having a fireplace in a tree is a serious fire hazard. But it's still a cute, silly image.<br />
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I love the Yarn Harlot's story where she passes people's homes and imagines what they're doing inside. Because I do exactly that. Every morning, as we drive down 202 to the train station, we pass a string of homes. Some are dark, some have their lights on. On a cold, dreary winter morning, these homes look so warm and cozy. The people in there must be waking up at their leisure, having a nice cup of coffee and some breakfast, maybe even reading the paper. They wouldn't possibly be racing around, putting their shoe on with one hand while brushing their teeth with the other, finally running out of the house with wet hair because there's no time to use a hair dryer. They certainly aren't performing these antics as their penance for those two extra minutes of sleep while still getting to the train on time. These people are relaxed, without a care.<br />
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And as if these images in my head weren't ridiculous enough, add in the chimney. If the house has a chimney billowing smoke, I imagine the same family sitting by the fireplace next to a crackling fire, sipping tea, reading or knitting, or doing one of many enjoyable, stress-free activities. It's not like that billowing smoke is from their heating system, or that they actually have to go to work to earn money and pay bills. They must own their homes outright - lovely fireplaces and all.<br />
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These Disney-esque images seem so ridiculous. Why wouldn't these people be racing about to get ready for work like I had just done? Why do they get to stay home while I have to go to work? It just doesn't seem right. That's because it's just silly. Silly as trees filled with tea-sipping, pyromaniac squirrels, mice and bunnies.<br />
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But it was this morning that the silliness became crystal clear, when Scott pointed to a chimney billowing smoke and said "Imagine how nice it would be to be <i>those</i> people!" And then he laughed at me. Because it was <i>our</i> chimney. That picture above is of our house. The smoke was from our heating system, not a fireplace. We were outside shoveling snow, not inside sipping tea and reading or knitting under quilts. It's amazing how far imagination can be from reality sometimes. Or is it?<br />
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<br />BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-91901055732129213342013-11-14T21:16:00.002-08:002013-11-14T21:16:44.728-08:00Why I Like 2013 Again - Part 2One of the things I had the opportunity to do this year was to become part of a fleece to shawl team. These teams are usually five people - four spinners and a weaver - who enter competitions where they start with a fleece which they card, spin and weave into a shawl in a limited amount of time - usually 3 hours.<br />
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I had thought about doing this a few years ago and mentioned it to some of the Spin City folks. One of the girls said she went and watched a bit of the competition at Rhinebeck. Her basic review was "Those people didn't look like they were having any fun", so I was no longer interested. I pretty much don't like doing anything unless it's fun or I can make it fun. Oh well. On to other things.<br />
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Every December we have our annual holiday party at Galway Pub. Last year's party ended with Christina yelling "SHEEP TO SHAWL! SHEEP TO SHAWL!" So I guess we're forming a team. With this crowd, at least I wouldn't have any question if it would be any fun.<br />
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I took a road trip in January with Jenny to pick up the loom she was buying to use for the competitions. It was only fair, since she took me to pick up my loom in November. Hers was smaller and folded up nicely to fit in the car. A definite plus!<br />
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One of the first things we did was comb and spin warp. We each dyed our handspun warp a different color, so we could decide whose looked best and try to replicate it. Which explains the color scheme of our first shawl.<br />
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So I missed the first actual practice at Jenny's house. But I heard about it. I heard it took 9 hours to make the shawl. I saw the pictures of it, which had been appropriately nicknamed The Mexican Placemat. Ay Carumba!<br />
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With those results, I didn't see how we would ever compete at Rhinebeck, which was the goal. But we continued to practice once a month. We'd either do demos, or we'd just meet at Jenny's place and do a run-through as if it was the competition. I attended the demo at Philipsburg Manor. It was a lot of fun, but very cold. I managed to sprain my ankle right before we started the demo. So I did most of the carding that afternoon.<br />
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I missed the next one which was at Queens Farm because I was in Maryland that weekend. But I attended every one after that. Most of them were at Jenny's place, and people would bring food - Lesia would always bring these AMAZING goat cheese stuffed peppers. For a while I refused to spin unless there were peppers.<br />
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Christina decided to pursue an amazing career opportunity in North Carolina. Sure - get us all riled up and then run! I can't blame her. It's not like any one of us wouldn't do the same. I was happy for her, but sad because I would miss her smiling face and her infectious energy. We did a conference call to discuss our plans - weave patterns, dye, costumes, etc. It was really the only way to get all of us together until<br />Rhinebeck.<br />
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Our time got better. The shawls got better. We decided to ply - it would even out the yarn and it would get us our length faster. Jenny tried different weaving patterns. My favorite was the diamond, but it was a HUGE PITA. Not suitable for speed.<br />
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I had a couple spin-ins at the house over the summer. Lynn played with some indigo out in the yard. I combed and combed and combed for warp. The white cheviot was a joy to comb! The grey was uber messy. It was like I was combing a pile of hay that happened to have some wool in it. I combed the grey outdoors, sometimes until it got dark. I've gotten pretty good at combing. A lot of the Spin City members helped out by combing and spinning warp, which Lynn then dyed for our actual competition shawl.<br />
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In August, we entered our first actual competition in the Ulster County Fair. It was a lot of fun and everyone was super nice. We made a futile attempt at bribing the judge with cookies before the competition, and then we were off to the races. We were definitely the loudest and most giggly team out there - a feature we improved upon at Rhinebeck. We were having a great time and before we knew it, we were off the loom and twisting fringe. First ones finished, but we finished fourth out of four teams. Our shawl - which had measured the correct size when we took it off the loom - had shrunk while waiting for judging. It was great to have our first ribbon, but we still needed improvement. At least the judge was able to give us some insight as to what we needed to work on, in addition to adding extra length to account for shrinkage. In fact, he liked us so much he joined the meetup group that evening!<br />
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Two more demos before the big day - one wsa at the Garden State Sheep Breeders Festival. Dawn bought a couple fleeces for 2014. We continued improving our time and our skills, while having a damn good time doing it. The other was at the Kings County Fiber Fair in Brooklyn. We had a little issue with the warp, so we got a late start, but we finished in a decent amount of time and we had a beautiful shawl in the end.<br />
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And before we knew it, Rhinebeck was here. Like Christmas, you wait anxiously all year for it and then it flies by like a rocket. I was working at the Loop booth on Saturday, when Christina came running into the booth, sat on my lap and gave me a great big hug. Nothing brightens your day so much as seeing a long lost friend!<br />
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It was Sunday morning. I hadn't slept much all week because I was staying up late every night putting the team banner together. It was exciting to finally be there and setting up, trying to make sure every last little thing was in place in time. I had my four cups of coffee and was ready to go. 0.o just before 10, we got in our huddle and each said a few words. Christina told us we were the best bitches ever. At 10:00 we were off and carding, spinning and weaving, punctuated by cheers of ADVANCE THAT WARP! We were drawing quite the crowd with our I Love NY tee shirts and our Lady Liberty foam crowns. Not to mention glitter anywhere we could put it. Because GLITTER. I saw so many Spin City faces in the crowd. It was great to have so much support from our fans.<br />
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Dawn and Lynn spun, then handed off to Christina to ply, who then handed the plied bobbin to me so I could wind the weaving bobbin and load the shuttle to hand to Jenny, who would then weave. When Christina had to go up and give her talk, I jumped in and plied. Lynn would help Jenny straighten the warp from the opposite side of the loom. The teamwork was amazing! I wish every time I had a team project it would go this smoothly. We were like a well-oiled shawl machine.<br />
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Just like at Ulster, we were first off the loom. But this time we had plenty of extra length. We were twisting fringe when Red Hook Spinners beat us to the judging table. We got our shawl to the table shortly after they did. Now to wait for the third team to finish. During the competition they had announced that Spin City won the award for Best Use of Natural Dye. We were the only team that used natural dyes. One team didn't even use the featured breed. It seemed so simple to do these things to get the extra points.<br />
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When Elmendorph Handspinners got their shawl to the table we paced around nervously while the judges measured and wrote notes on their clipboards. They finally brought the shawls forward and announced third place - Elmendorph Handspinners.<br />
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My heart was racing as they brought the red ribbon out and made what seemed like the slowest announcement ever: "Second Place goes to......................................................the Red Hook Spinners."<br />
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My eyes got wider. I didn't want to scream just yet, because I thought it would be rude, but all I could think was HOLY SHIT WE WON!!!!WE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN!!!!! When they finally announced "In First Place - Spin City!" I let loose. The cheers were so loud I'm sure people <i>in</i> the city could hear us. I think we had the larger fan base than the crowd was expecting. The next half hour or so was all hugging and crying and lots of picture-taking. It was such an amazing feeling to work toward something for so long, and win first place as first-timers in the competition.<br />
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I had entered yarns in the skein and garment competition at Rhinebeck for years, and had won lots of ribbons, but never a blue one. Now I'm glad. It was way more special winning my first blue ribbon at Rhinebeck with friends than it ever could have been doing it alone. I am so proud to be part of a team of such amazing, talented and fun people!<br />
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Now if you'll excuse me, I must go comb some shetland. Rhinebeck 2014 will be here before you know it.<br />
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BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-3478368338725227622013-10-31T20:16:00.000-07:002013-10-31T20:16:02.221-07:00Why I Like 2013 Again - Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Wow. It's almost November and this is my first post of the year. Let me get you up to speed.</div>
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Got laid off in January. Spent most of my days working on the house and searching the web for jobs. It was nice having the time off, but the no $$ part suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. I had no job, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I sent out hundreds of resumes, went on dozens of interviews - nuthin'. Nada. I felt like such a loser.</div>
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Then in July, I got an email from a former boss asking if I was available to do some freelance work. I asked how soon and he said "at once". So the next day I was working again. Part time - just a few days a week, but it was $$. He also set me up with a few days a week at another division of the company. I also got some other freelance work at a few different companies, so I was able to keep up a steady five day work week for about a month and a half. </div>
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Then I got an offer for a temp-to-perm freelance assignment. It was a great company, nice people to work with, but every week when it came time to make me an offer, they'd say they needed another week. Finally, they fessed up that they had no intention of hiring someone permanently and that it would be freelance only. And since I needed the $$, I continued working there with the understanding that if I received a full time offer from another company I was free to go.</div>
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A few weeks later I was nearing that offer. I had a great interview with a company that wanted to hire me, but they knew the owner of the company where I was freelancing and didn't want to step on any toes, so they just wanted to call the other owner. When I finally got the phone call that I thought would be the offer, instead I heard "We <em>were</em> going to offer you the job, but I called Company A and they said they were going to make you an offer." Wait, WHAT?? The same company where I've worked for weeks and heard repeatedly that they were most certainly NOT making me an offer? I suddenly felt like the toy on the playground that just sat there and nobody played with it. Until the first kid picked it up. Then immediately, there was another kid yelling "MINE!"</div>
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And then came the rest of the kids. While I was trying to straighten out the mess between the first two jobs, I got an email from my former boss (the same one who set me up with the initial freelance work) telling me he appreciated the freelance work I did over the summer and wanted to know if I'd be interested in working there full time. Well, at least if the two companies who were arguing over me both dropped their offers, I'd have something.</div>
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So the nexy day, I was freelancing at the other division of former boss's company when I got a call from HR. I thought it was going to be the offer from former boss, but instead it was about an offer in yet another division of the same company.</div>
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And thenn I got a call from another company. With another offer. For a total of five.</div>
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So, long story less long (well, it's beyond short now, isn't it?), The offer I really wanted came through, I told the other four "thanks, but no thanks" and I started my new full time job.</div>
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It was so exciting! Great company, great products, great people to work with. And then I got an email from an agent who had placed me at Former Boss's company nine years ago. She said she had sent my resume to a company and they wanted to meet me. I replied thankyou, but I jad already started my new job. When she replied with how much the job paid, I decided it was a good idea to keep my options open. "I'll be there tomorrow" I said.</div>
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I went in thinking they wouldn't be interested in me. They were nice and the company was great, but I didn't think they'd call me back.</div>
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They called me back. I went for a second interview. I was sitting in the interview thinking "Don't offer me the job. I don't want to have a difficult decision." They offered me the job.</div>
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I thought about it all weekend before I made a decision to take the offer. I loved the company where I was working, although I hsad only been there a week. But the $$ was a lot more, and I would be doing more patternmaking- something I love, but haven't done in years.</div>
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I was sad to leave those nice people, but I had to do what was best for me. I'm almost finished with my first two weeks at the new place and I love it! I'm picking up the pattermaking software very quickly. The people I work with are really nice - and I'm usually out the door by 5:15 - something extremely rare in the fashion industry. And the woman running the department right now is great - she does her best to make everyone's time at work a fun experience,</div>
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So, all those times this year I thought woe is me and my life sucks, I now see were things I had to do to get where I am. And I'm grateful for the learning experience.</div>
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<br />BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-26501214607802483772012-12-23T22:19:00.001-08:002012-12-23T22:19:08.158-08:00A Christmas VisitorThe holidays always bring up this memory, from many years ago, before I was a spinner (if you can imagine such a time existed). <div>
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It was Christmas Eve and I had just gotten up and was getting ready to make coffee and get on the road to my Mom's house in PA for the holidays. I went into the kitchen and opened the blinds to see the birds at the feeder, when I jumped back and screamed "OH MY GOD!"<div>
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From the other room I heard a half-asleep "'Oh my God' what?"</div>
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As I started to answer, I knew what I was saying, but had no idea how crazy it would sound until the words had escaped and it was too late to pull them back,</div>
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"There's a SHEEP eating from the bird feeder!"</div>
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I heard the footsteps as Scott came out of the other room into the kitchen to see for himself. Sure enough, there was a sheep happily munching up all the bird seed that was in the little wooden feeder.</div>
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Where did it come from? This area was definitely suburban and there were no farms for many miles. Scott said "Maybe it wandered out of one of those live nativity scenes." I looked over the top of my glasses at him and said "I'm the only shickse in the neighborhood, so no." I figured it came from <i>somewhere</i>, and there must be somebody wondering where their sheep is. So I called the police.</div>
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Actually, Scott called the police. I heard him saying "Can you please send somebody to pick up the sheep, and not to pick me up in a straightjacket? I swear there's really a sheep here!" A little while later, the police showed up with a lasso. After several unsuccessful attempts to catch the sheep, it took off into the woods and they said we should call them again if it came back, I said I definitely would, since someone must be missing it. "Oh, someone is missing it" the officer said "but not for the reasons you're thinking." 0,o What did he mean? Were these people going to kill it and eat it? I certainly didn't want it returned to them if that was the case,</div>
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The sheep returned a few hours later, so I called PETA who put me in touch with Farm Sanctuary in upstate NY - an organization that rescues farm animals. They had sent two women down a few days later, who were also unsuccessful at catching the sheep. But they did give me some useful information. They recognized the breed as a Barbados Blackbelly, because of its ability to jump high and far - when the cops were chasing it, it jumped clear across an 8 foot wide garden with no effort. They also said it was a ewe due to its lack of horns. So I affectionately named her "Sheepy".</div>
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I know it's a tiny picture, but we could never get very close to Sheepy, since she spooked so easily and would take off. But she would always return later, I guess she figured out we were nice people who wouldn't hurt her. It also helped that Scott went out and bought a bag of Purina Sheep Chow, and we would leave a Yankees popcorn bucket full of it, along with another bucket of water, for her every day. we also hung a tarp over the swing set so she would have a sheltered area to lay in when it snowed. Never did I think when I moved from Pennsylvania to work in New York City that I would have to come home and feed the sheep!</div>
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Sheepy hung around for about a month and then one day she didn't return. I hope she found a nice home somewhere where she is loved and well cared for. We've since moved to another town as well, where we have many strange animals wandering through the yard. But none were as unusual nor as memorable as my first sheep.</div>
BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-87285229737446465582012-11-26T14:20:00.000-08:002012-11-27T10:12:12.695-08:00Rhinebeck 2012Rhinebeck is something I look forward to every year, pretty much like a little kid looks forward to Christmas. You make your wish list, you count down the days until the actual event, and then *poof!*<br />
Just like that, it's over and you have to wait until next year.<br />
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Since I only live a little over an hour from Rhinebeck, I stay at home and drive up each day. This year I took a workshop - All Spindles All Day with Abby Franquemont. Although I've been spinning for a number of years now, I wanted to get a different perspective from the master spindler herself. It was a very interesting class and I did come away with different opinions than the ones with which I had started the day. Particularly, low-whorl spindles without hooks.<br />
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Since the first spindle I learned on was a high-whorl, I had subconsciously made them my preferred spindle of choice. I could spin on a low-whorl, but would always switch back to the familiar. In this class, we practiced both. And I discovered that you could get a lot of spin out of a low whorl by rolling the shaft on your leg.<br />
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We also used a spindle with a hook and one without. I had always been of the opinion OMG I NEED A HOOK! But I found that tying a couple of half-hitches isn't so bad, and the yarn doesn't jump off as it sometimes does with a hook.<br />
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So, on Saturday while I was shopping with limited funds (made a mental note to speak to the organizers of Maryland Sheep and Wool and Rhinebeck about scheduling these festivals to coordinate with my bi-weekly paychecks), I found a big, clunky low whorl spindle for $12. I also found some amazingly soft Border Leicester roving (purple, of course) and I started spinning it on my new spindle on the car ride home (don't worry - I wasn't driving!). It's not quite the size of a Navajo spindle, but it will hold a lot of yarn.<br />
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Notice a color theme here? I also picked up some Country Classics dyes and some felted friends. And wine and cheese. And more wine. I was also very excited to find the burgundy/grey CVM/Romeldale I had spun last year, but forgotten where I had purchased it. I found it at <a href="http://www.spirit-trail.net/">Spirit Trail Fiberworks</a>, so I bought some more along with some Targhee/Merino/Dorset/Finn. Their fibers are amazing and unique - they have a lot of rare breed fibers which are incredibly soft and still have a bit of that wonderful sheepy scent to them.<br />
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We had our Spin City- NY meetup around 3:00 on both Saturday and Sunday. It's fun to get together and check out what everyone bought. Just before the meetup, I had found a pound of Ramboulliet roving at a ridiculous price so of course I bought it. We were busy chatting and passing around our purchases, and when I went to leave, my pound o' Rambo was missing! But being among fiber friends, I didn't panic. I figured someone had mistakenly put it in their bag and I would see it again. Sure enough, I got it back the following Monday at our regular meetup.<br />
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On Sunday I got to meet Richard Ashford and try out the new Ashford Country Spinner 2 at Loop's booth. Steph Gorin helped to develop this wheel, which is great for spinning big, chunky art yarns! It is amazingly smooth and easy to use once you get used to its appetite for fiber. Check out Steph's tutorial videos on the Ashford website: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Mu84kn5Sg&noredirect=1">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Mu84kn5Sg&noredirect=1</a><br />
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So, another Rhinebeck has come and gone, having enhanced my spinning knowledge as well as my stash. Good classes, good friends, good fiber, good times. Only 160 days until the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Is it too early to start my wish list?<br />
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<br />BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-63964687504977916552012-10-04T12:29:00.002-07:002012-10-04T12:30:44.974-07:00Fibre Fallout 2012A little over four years ago, I was on one of the Ravelry forums when someone posted a link to Fibre Fallout. I clicked on the link and thought it sounded interesting - an all-inclusive weekend of spinning and classes, and it wasn't expensive or far away, so I signed up.<br />
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I only knew one other person there, but I made many friends and learned a lot. I took a Natural Dye class with Rita Schwab where we actually cooked plants to extract the dyes, then on Sunday I learned how to choose and skirt a fleece with Nelda Davis. It was such a great weekend, I raved about it to all my Spin City-NY friends and in 2010 there were five of us who went. I took classes in Wheel Mechanics and Sock Yarn Spinning with Judith Mackenzie, and Spinning Fine Fibers with Patsy Zawistoski. They had expanded the weekend to include Friday afternoon classes as well.<br />
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This past weekend, Spin City-NY was represented at Fibre Fallout by 14 people (a few of whom are not pictured here)! We had such an incredible time!<br />
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Having spent all week staying up late making flyers, prepping for the Campaign for Wool event, and working late, I had slept about 12 hours in three days. But the excitement of the weekend had me up early finishing the laundry and shopping before heading off to New Jersey.<br />
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The most difficult part of this event is choosing which classes to take when you send in your registration. They are all so good I wouldn't be disappointed with any of them! I started the weekend with Judith Mackenzie's Boucles, Bangles and Beads class, where we learned different techniques for making fun, textured yarns.<br />
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My favorite was this one, which was made by pulling wisps of mohair locks between two silk threads. The grey yarn at the end of the bobbin is my coreless corespun alpaca/silk blend.<br />
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I'm planning to make a lot more of this mohair yarn! The class was so much fun, it was quarter to six before I remembered to look at the time.<br />
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After class, Lynn, Lisa, Melissa and I went for a hike through the camp's trails to see the labyrinth, which we then walked through. Must put this on the to-do list for FF 2014, but with a drop spindle this time.<br />
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Saturday's class was a full day dye class with Kathleen Taylor - we did spiral dyeing on superwash merino sock yarn in the morning, and dyeing on sock blanks in the afternoon.<br />
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I loved the Country Classics dyes we used in this class! The colors are so true to what the swatches look like and very, very little color rinses out. And so vibrant! The colors I chose for the above yarn were the Wild Iris, Mountain Aqua, Key Lime and Very Hot Pink. Then I finished it with small dots of Raven randomly placed throughout the skein. This was my first time dyeing dry yarn - usually I wet it first - so there was less color bleed than I am used to. I was disappointed at first that I had brought the wrong brushes. I know there is a pack of chiseled foam brushes somewhere in the house, because I kept seeing it for the past few weeks. Of course, when I went to pack for the weekend, they were nowhere to be found, so I ended up packing round stencil brushes. They actually ended up working out better than the chiseled ones because they made a more defined edge. So much better, that Kathleen said she was going to start using them herself.<br />
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After lunch we dyed sock blanks. For those unfamiliar with them, a sock blank is two strands of sock yarn knitted together in a rectangle that looks like a small scarf. You paint your dye on the knitted fabric and when it dries, you unravel it and wind the yarn into two separate balls. When you knit your socks, they come out the same because the yarns were dyed together.<br />
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This was the first one I did - Buttercup, Cantaloupe and Butterscotch. I thought it looked boring - the repeats were too long and I should have used more colors. I added the Scarlet stripes. We'll see what it looks like when it re-knit. I finished less than halfway through class, so I did a second one:<br />
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For this one I used Bermuda Sand, Cherry, Lilac, Cornflower Blue and Evergreen. I was happier with this one, but I still think the repeats are a bit long. I'll be able to gauge better when I see how they knit up.<br />
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Saturday night after dinner was the participants' fashion show, where I modeled my Strawberry Lace Scarf and a skein of singles yarn I finished from Loop's Purple Rain Clouds. 450 yards! Still trying to decide what to make out of it.<br />
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If you haven't spun something from Loop clouds, well, what are you waiting for? OMG these are so AWESOME to spin! So easy to draft because the fibers have so much air in between - that is unless you squish them in a ziplock in your purse. Ask me how I know. And the variety of colors and fibers in each one keeps it interesting.<br />
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There were so many beautiful projects from everyone in the fashion show! In addition, each class had a table displaying their work, so attendees could see what the other classes were working on. The weekend-long weaving class was my second choice, but dye is still my favorite. The weavers had these amazing projects on these tabletop harness looms. It looked interesting to learn all the different patterns. The weaving mentor, Daryl Lancaster, joined the Spin City crowd for dinner Friday and Saturday. She wore several of her handwoven jackets throughout the weekend and they were absolutely gorgeous!<br />
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Saturday night ended up back at the lodge with a game of Wild Wool where you build sheep out of Legos. Basically, you roll the die and grow wool until Christina steals it. And then you drink. I'm pretty sure Christina and Dawn made up that rule.<br />
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Sunday's class was my favorite, but it was definitely the messiest! Gradient Color Band Dyeing with Kathleen Taylor. You wind your yarn into a tight ball and submerge the ball in your dye bucket (or buckets if you're doing two). Then you pull a length of the yarn between your fingers to squeeze the dye into the yarn and lay it in the rinse bucket. You keep pulling lengths of yarn until the entire ball is unwound and in the rinse, and you change colors several times throughout the process. I started with Wild Iris. Shocking.<br />
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I went from the Wild Iris to Lilac, Raspberry and Magenta. Once your yarn is all in the rinse bucket, you wind a wet skein - THIS is the really messy part! It's pretty much impossible to do this without splashing, so we did it outside. When I do this at home (which I plan to do a lot!) I think I'll do the whole process outside. Then I will have the prettiest yard with spots of color everywhere! After the skein is wound, we use the microwave to heat set the dye. And here's how it looks:<br />
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Again, a learning experience. I should have done more of the first color before switching. But I like it anyway.<br />
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It was so hard leaving and going back to work after such a fantastic weekend! The North Country Spinners do such an amazing job with this event and this year's was no exception. I'm already looking forward to Fibre Fallout 2014!<br />
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<br />BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-21694054419938629962012-10-01T10:52:00.002-07:002012-10-01T10:52:51.465-07:00Wool Uncovered - Sheep in Bryant ParkWhen I heard about the Wool Uncovered event in Bryant Park last Thursday, I contacted The Campaign for Wool to see if we could hold a meetup during the event. After several emails back and forth, we were given the ok to meet at the event.<br />
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The Campaign for Wool, created by HRH Prince Charles, is a campaign to promote the use of this wonderful natural fiber. They hosted this event which included sheep, wool, rugs, chair covers, tree cozies, home insulation, a mattress, knitters and of course, Spin City-NY.<br />
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They even emptied the fountain and covered it with wool!<br />
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I scheduled the spinning from 12:00 - 3:00, figuring most people would be working during the day, but could come by at lunch. I was there from 12:00 until almost 2:00 with my Roadbug wheel. It was warm, but I wore my newly finished Strawberry Lace scarf from my own handspun merino. (So newly finished that I wove the ends in during the taxi ride from my office to the event!)<br />
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Scarf is pictured below in progress.<br />
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We had a lot of spinners and drew quite the crowd! There were plenty of questions from spectators and we were interviewed by several publications.<br />
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What a great way to spend a lunch hour! Thank you, Campaign for Wool, for hosting this event!<br />
BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-37005203028836239412012-09-02T21:08:00.001-07:002012-09-02T21:14:31.720-07:00A Fish Story - Sort of<br />
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Labor Day weekend has been fun so far. Lobster and Steak bake Friday night with a live reggae band - and right in the neighborhood, which is rare. Saturday we got up pretty early and had breakfast in the gazebo. Walked around a little bit looking at the frogs and turtles in the pond. We saw some fish jump and remarked about how some of the neighbors had gone fishing in our pond, but we haven't yet.<br />
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When we walked back to the house, Scott went into the tool shed and came out with a fishing rod and an assortment of hooks and lures. He said we could thank the former landlords for leaving them behind. I looked at the size of some of the hooks - WTF did that guy think he was going to catch in this little pond? The hooks were bigger than most of the fish in the pond!<br />
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We opened a package of shiny red worms and after many adjustments and some WD40 (the rod had been in the shed a while) we practiced some casting in the yard (being ever the knitter, I kept calling it "casting on"). We felt pretty confident and headed for the bridge. I know we had a lot of work to do, but it was beautiful out and the work could be done later.<br />
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I liked to fish, but I hadn't done it in years. My grandparents used to take my brother and I fishing when we were little. Grandma would pack a lunch and grandpa would get us set up with fishing poles and bait and everything we needed. The only thing I ever caught were small sunfish, but my grandpa would always say something like "Sunnies are good eating!" to make me feel better. I would be so proud of it that when I got home I would sit on the garage apron and scale and clean my fish and give it to my mom to cook. And she'd return the plate to me with a little piece of cooked fish the size of a quarter.<br />
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When we got to the bridge, Scott cast the first line out and waited. The current gradually sent the bobber toward us and he reeled it in and it was my turn. I cast the line out and waited.<br />
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Scott: I know this is kind of boring. It's not like fishing with a lure where you're constantly casting out and reeling it in."<br />
Me: "I think it's nice and relaxing. Until somebody bites your worm."<br />
Scott: 0.o<br />
Me: "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"<br />
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He was getting antsy, so he went off with a shovel in search of some real worms while I cast on again. (Oops! You know what I mean). Of course, the second he walks away I got something. It was like the hook with the worm on it landed right in a fish's mouth while he was yawning. The bobber went right under the water. "I got something!" Scott came running back and took the rod, but I guess I didn't set the hook properly, because we reeled it in and the hook came up with the worm still on it, but no fish. Scott laughed and said "That's why it's called 'fishing' and not 'catching'."<br />
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So he went back on his worm hunt and I tried again. And again. And several more times. Nothing. Except for catching the tree limbs overhead twice. The fish were laughing at me. I just knew it. The sun went behind the clouds and with the overcast sky we could see under the water. Two fish were looking directly at the worm on my hook - just sitting there staring! They were probably saying "She thinks we'd eat <i>that</i>?" "What a dumbass!" Then they got bored and left.<br />
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The sun came back out and we walked over onto the bridge this time. I cast on (HAHA!) several more times with no activity. At least not near my hook. Fish were jumping completely out of the water all around the pond - again laughing at me. And then I jinxed it.<br />
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I said "One more cast-on and then we'll go in and work." You know when you say "just one more" is when you run into trouble. So I cast the line and waited. And waited, The bobber was moving closer and I was just about to reel it in when I saw it get pulled under. "I got something!" I yelled to Scott. I was trying to give it some line and then reel it in a little at a time, tryng to set the hook so I wouldn't lose it like the one earlier. But when I reeled in I felt like nothing was happening. Did I hook something on the bottom? It couldn't be - the bobber got pulled under. It had to be those damn fish again! They grabbed the hook and tied it around a log at the bottom of the pond and they're sitting there laughing at me! >:(<br />
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Scott came over and asked "are you reeling it in?" I said "I'm trying, but I think it's caught or something." He took the rod from me and tried. "Wow, Hon, whatever you caught is BIG!" What could it be? I didn't think there was anything that big in this pond. He kept reeling and reeling and finally I saw a big, red mouth coming toward us under the water. WTF is THAT??? He reeled some more and I saw it was a turtle. But not just any turtle - it was the biggest, most prehistoric-looking snapping turtle I had ever seen! HOLY SHIT! What are we going to do when that thing gets out of the water? It looks MAD! He kept reeling and the turtle's front legs were on the shore and I could see the entire shell, which was about the size of a car tire.<br />
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Scott said "I'll have to try to hold his head with one hand while I take the hook out." I said "How are you going to do that? His head is bigger than your hand!" While I was fearing a trip to the emergency room, SNAP! The line broke and just as quick, the giant turtle disappeared under the water. I felt bad for having hooked him, but the hook was small enough that I'm sure he'll be able to dislodge it on his own.<br />
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As Scott laughed and said "Leave it to you to catch the biggest thing in the pond!", I gathered up the rod and the rest of the bait and we headed for the house. I smiled and said "That's why it's called 'fishing' and not 'turtleing'."<br />
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<br />BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-23521903996099374722012-07-05T14:36:00.001-07:002012-07-05T15:03:35.114-07:00The Ultimate OotumsMy boyfriend thinks it's hilarious that I'm always making comments about over-indulgent mombies. They spoil their kids to the point where they can get away with anything, because in their eyes their little ootums can do no wrong. Their kids are always the topic of conversation, they have a gazillion pictures of them, (which everyone they encounter has seen), and everything they do is for their kid because no other kid is as awesome or special as theirs.<br />
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He laughs at me because I am exactly that.<br />
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It's all your fault I am this way. You started it. I was just walking around the fair when I dragged my friends to go look at the bunnies (one of my favorite things to do at the fair). All the other bunnies were cowering in the back corners of their cages, having had enough of being poked by everyone sticking their fingers through the bars of their cages for several days in a row. But when I did it to you, you hopped forward and licked my hand. I knew then you were coming home with us. It just took me a while of walking around the fair some more and trying to scrounge enough money to spring for your release (between 4 adults, we couldn't put together $15 - oy vey! So I went to the ATM.) I almost gave up hope when we arrived back at the bunny barn and the door was closed. But your Daddy is not one to give up easily - he flung the door open and we went in. Next thing I knew we were walking across the fairgrounds carrying you in a Build-a-Bear box.<br />
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It should have occurred to me that night how much personality you had. We stopped at the Main Gate for a drink and put your box in the center of our table. You kept standing up to look around and all these girls were coming over to look at you and pet you. Since you were always charming the ladies and you would be living with 2 girl bunnies, I decided on a name that suited you - Hef.<br />
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And that's when I became one of <i>them.</i> The over-indulgent BunnyMombie. I had other bunnies before, but none that did the things you did. You were the first bunny to run from room to room and binky (for you non-bunny people, a "binky" is a little happy jump bunnies do - and it's hilarious the first time you see it) in the doorway, then flop down by the door when you were tired, feet sticking out the back like you were a dog. You were the first one to figure out how the Treat Ball worked, and you loved playing with it (even though I would scoop up the treats you missed and put them back in the ball). You were the first to run to the refrigerator and beg for treats, and you were the first one to run to the door when I said "Daddy's home!"<br />
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You figured out how to open the food container and help yourself. And when that didn't work, you learned to push the container off the table so it would pop open when it hit the floor and spill all the food out for easy access.<br />
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But I never got mad at that. I never got mad at anything you did, because you were my ootums and could do no wrong. Daddy and I don't eat in bed, but you, on the other hand...<br />
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I didn't get mad when I was trying to eat a bowl of ice cream and you jumped in my lap and helped yourself from the other side of the bowl.<br />
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I didn't get mad when I was getting the vacuum cleaner out, left the room for two minutes and came back to you sitting next to the vacuum with the chewed-off plug next to you on the floor and a wide-eyed look on your face that said "Who could have done <i>that</i>?"<br />
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I didn't get mad when you thought the bottom shelf of the bookcase was your chew toy. Or when you thought my new magazines were put on the floor for you to shred.<br />
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I didn't get mad when we returned from apple-picking and heard a <i>crunchcrunchcrunch</i> noise and found your furry butt sticking out of one of the apple bags we had placed on the floor. I wasn't even mad that you had taken a bite out of each apple in the bag.<br />
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I didn't even get mad when you decided to hump one of my bunny slippers. While my foot was still in it. <br />
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No, none of these things made me mad. Instead, they made me laugh hysterically, remark about how clever you are, and share the story with anyone who would listen.<br />
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And yes, you were incredibly clever. You figured out exactly how to bite your cage bars to make it sound like there was a jackhammer in the room at 5:45 AM, and if you did that I'd have to get up and feed you so I could go back to sleep. You figured out how to climb the stairs to get to the food I tried to hide on the top step.<br />
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You figured out how to get me to give you <i>exactly </i>the food you wanted by giving me "The look" every time I'd put the wrong thing in your dish. I'd put a handful of pellets in and you'd sit there and give me the look. Then a handful of oatmeal - and the look. Then some veggie poofs - and the look. Finally, I'd throw a yogie bite in there and I couldn't get my hand out of the dish because your head was in the way. And when I didn't catch on, you'd let me know you were upset by flipping your dish so all the food would spill out and I'd have to start over.<br />
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You were so clever that when I'd take too long cleaning your litter tray, you'd find a piece of newspaper on the floor to use so you wouldn't pee on the floor. We used to brag how you <i>never</i> pee outside your cage. Which you actually did 3 times - once on Daddy in the car, and once on each of our mothers' couches (each time right after we said "He <i>never</i> pees outside his cage!")<br />
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You had us jumping through hoops every time you had that forlorn look like you might be sick. We would run to the supermarket for any kind of fruit of vegetable that would help, and then rush you to the vet (sometimes 2 vets) to make sure you'd be okay. You had more regular checkups than we did, had a better diet and were taken care of better. You even got your very own room at FancyHotel that didn't allow pets when we begged because we had no one to watch you then. You had a vacation home at Grandma's in PA, your own personal chefs and maid service. You lived through several blackouts, heat waves, cold snaps and a flood without ever experiencing any discomfort.<br />
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Everyone who ever met you fell in love with you instantly, even though you would shut off the outgoing personality you had around Daddy and me as soon as a strange person was present - and we would call you our Warner Brother's singing frog. Because we would brag about how personable you were and then it looked like we were crazy when you'd clam up.<br />
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But you did warm up to some people. Like Grandma, who would bring you a big basket of fresh veggies every Easter. Or Aunt Linda and Uncle Paul, who watched you while we were on vacation and didn't want to give you back to us when we came back. Or Drew, who would ask "Did you bring the bunnies?" every time we went to visit - before he even said hello. I have great memories of Calvin and Drew (who are now in their teens) playing with you when you were all little boys. Some of these people got to experience the wonderful snuggles and bunny kisses that were part of our everyday life. As soon as I'd wake up in the morning, I'd pick you up for snuggles and kisses. Same thing when I got home from work. I could have a really lousy day and I'd pick you up and you'd lick my face until all my problems were forgotten. I'd sit for the longest time just petting your head. I'm amazed that after nine years you still had any fur left from being pet so often. And when all three of us were together is when you would finally start eating. You were always happiest when we were all home.<br />
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I wasn't ready for you to leave us so soon. I'm not mad at you - I understand that you had to go, but I am brokenhearted about it. Even if you had lived to be a thousand years old I still would not have been ready to let you go. I am glad you were able to wait until I got home - so you would not have to be alone, or somewhere strange and cold. You had us right by your side, petting you and telling you how much we love you right until the very end. <br />
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I miss you terribly. So does Daddy. You two were best buddies. I still want to go look for you as soon as I get up in the morning and as soon as I get home. Sometimes I can feel you nudging my ankle with your nose like you always did when you wanted to play. My brain still adds things to the shopping list for you. I still have the urge to pull into Pet Goods as I drive by to pick up a special treat for you. When we pick out carpeting, i still wonder if it's soft enough for your little feet. I just want to pick you up and hold you and make the tears go away while you lick my face. As painful as it is that I can't do that anymore, I wouldn't trade it for one less minute that I was fortunate enough to have with you. You are and always will be the most amazing little ootums. And I will always be an over-indulgent BunnyMombie. Because that's how it should be.<br />
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<br />BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-23628048247315937862012-01-26T10:42:00.000-08:002012-02-03T08:09:20.120-08:00Vogue Knitting LiveI really wanted to write this right after VKL, but a nice upper respiratory infection had other plans for my time and energy. >:( If you have not read my previous post yet, go read it now. It will give you a better understanding of the stress level.<br /><br />So I left work that Friday evening and hailed a cab (Did you ever try hailing a cab on 10th avenue around 6:00 PM? There's a zillion cabs around and they're all off duty), got to the hotel and checked in. I went to turn on the light on the nightstand and <span style="font-style: italic;">clink</span> - the band finally broke on my cheap watch. Ok, so I have no watch for the weekend. My iPhone still has the time.<br /><br />Friday night was the kickoff party at The Yarn Company - the yarn store uptown where I teach.<br />I met Debbie Bliss and her daughters immediately as I walked in the door - very lovely people!<br /><br />Me with Debbie Bliss:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2a5ORo6XUYKdj-8oKeVa3zeIVNp9gGmuryYAqYOWkjGyx6ADD7kDVpNZm8yzgizgBMawblpvYlTTJ-T72e0e_hyUsJxmlMklK8gmMaYWkK9aVlMXnwqMORPONxMXPLJXkZHuhTurJpGOv/s1600/VKLkickoffparty3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2a5ORo6XUYKdj-8oKeVa3zeIVNp9gGmuryYAqYOWkjGyx6ADD7kDVpNZm8yzgizgBMawblpvYlTTJ-T72e0e_hyUsJxmlMklK8gmMaYWkK9aVlMXnwqMORPONxMXPLJXkZHuhTurJpGOv/s200/VKLkickoffparty3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702030119303836162" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdSDCJHNM01BY7eY89gu6rtS9-NnFOVabd_OX3wN9BXWSl_11f17Ba4BOzulAjb5ee9QeYu2b5IyXglq2VCh1UprCfvMQRiJHA4HDtmJWU4_hDFah6sNNh78vZuJyDnUovlhBCtvcEIJi7/s1600/VKLkickoffparty4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdSDCJHNM01BY7eY89gu6rtS9-NnFOVabd_OX3wN9BXWSl_11f17Ba4BOzulAjb5ee9QeYu2b5IyXglq2VCh1UprCfvMQRiJHA4HDtmJWU4_hDFah6sNNh78vZuJyDnUovlhBCtvcEIJi7/s200/VKLkickoffparty4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702030122359055858" border="0" /></a><br />Jayne spinning something uber-fine:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoyZH3NUxul6GwJVT5vGwE1s0F32HWnGA15afCcW1PU6l0KRX6-na7SGfwqckyXpo5entckHeaaXvThyGbsH97UU8xTNuR855oAp_-qR0btm3rwG_eDdjUWsRwMVlIuhUFBLF1gJEyNtqb/s1600/VKLkickoffparty1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoyZH3NUxul6GwJVT5vGwE1s0F32HWnGA15afCcW1PU6l0KRX6-na7SGfwqckyXpo5entckHeaaXvThyGbsH97UU8xTNuR855oAp_-qR0btm3rwG_eDdjUWsRwMVlIuhUFBLF1gJEyNtqb/s200/VKLkickoffparty1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702030134129048482" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was a great kickoff party! Great food, great company, great drinks, although I didn't have any because I was nervous about teaching the next morning. As I went to leave, I got out my Ikea bag I brought to bring my supplies for the classes. I thought it was one box - turns out it was THREE boxes, each the size that would have filled the bag. How am I going to get all this back to the hotel? The Amazing Johnathan (not the stand-up comic, but a guy who works at The Yarn Company and is AMAZING) helped me carry all the boxes downstairs and hail a cab. He loaded them in the cab and I was off.<br /><br />Back at the hotel, I did a series of shuffling maneuvers to get everything up to my room. I spent the rest of the evening packing everything for Saturday's class, ironing my clothes, etc. Saturday 7:00 teachers meeting was SOOOO early! But there was coffee, so I was cool with it. They said in the meeting that we had to be in our classrooms 25 minutes before the start of class. The meeting adjourned at 7:34 - class starts at 8:00. 0.o<br /><br />I went straight to my classroom thinking it's super early and I'll have time to set up when I walked in and there was a student already sitting there. I immediately started setting up as students started coming in. It was like being caught in a whirlwind of introductions, setting up and students purchasing the spindle kits. There was some confusion with the kits - the original course description said students could bring their own spindle and fiber, then I thought I <span style="font-style: italic;">had</span> to sell the kits. And then I had my first student complain to the Vogue Knitting Live staff. We worked everything out and I proceeded with the class.<br /><br />Class was awesome! I was nervous teaching such a large group at first (there were 15 students - I normally teach 6 at a time) - but as things started rolling it got more comfortable. And my students were fantastic! I love hearing someone say "I tried this before and I couldn't get it, now I got it! Thank you!" I got a lot of positive feedback.<br /><br />I called Scott after class - he was pissed. Here I was, so happy I just taught my first class and he's mad that I waited until now to call. So much for feeling awesome.<br /><br />I walked around the marketplace with my friend Melissa for a little while before she had to meet a friend. I was admiring some balls of fiber in this great booth with a felted llama chair, when I ran into a former student. She had quit her job in the garment center, bought a llama farm on Long Island and she looked happier than ever. It was very inspiring.<br /><br />I spent a while doing a spindle demo at The Yarn Company's booth, then ran some errands and got ready for the next party - Gryphon (formerly of Sanguine Gryphon) was there - sorry I did not get any pictures, but she had a great Victorian outfit with a bustle and top hat. Again, great food, great company, great drinks, and I didn't have to bring anything back to the hotel!<br /><br />I found the Mac Daddy of Duane Reade's on the way back to the hotel - 52nd and 7th - they even had self-serve frozen yogurt and slurpees. I got a slurpee and a bagel for the morning and went back to the hotel to finish knitting my red handspun moebius scarf. Got everything packed and ready, finished the scarf, set the alarm and went to sleep. Or so I thought.<br /><br />I woke up and looked at the clock - 7:18! WTF?? I set the alarm on my phone - that stupid, annoying thing goes off every morning - WHY NOT TODAY??? Oh, because I never hit "Save" when I was done editing. Oops.<br /><br />I raced through my morning ritual shaking like a leaf in a hurricane - called the bellman who loaded everything on the cart, checked all the closets and drawers and we were out, downstairs and in my classroom in 20 minutes - a personal record - one I hope to never break.<br /><br />There were more people waiting than yesterday, but something was different - my table was gone. I quickly ran to the Vogue staff and they quickly got me another table, but the students were eager to get their kits, so I ended up just handing them out straight out of my Ikea bag. Even more of a whirlwind today of introductions, setting up and selling the kits, but I kept in the back of my head <span style="font-style: italic;">this is all just a series of little proble</span><span style="font-style: italic;">ms - each one will get solved one at a time</span>. The Vogue staff was able to arrange a late check-out for me and the awesome staff person outside my classroom even ran to Starbucks to get coffee for me! Class went well again and I got more great reviews.<br /><br />After class I had 30 minutes to set up for my demo on the main stage at 11:30. After everyone left I grabbed my bag with the multitude of spindles I brought for the demo, locked the classroom and headed for the main stage.<br /><br />Now this is the part that really made me nervous. Talking to 15 people I've now handled. But doing a demo in front of LOTS of people, on a stage with bright lights, cameras and a microphone? That's a whole new ballgame. I got to the stage just as the fashion show was ending. The sound guy helped me set up as some of the crowd got settled in. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ignore the people<span style="font-style: italic;"> - just focus on setting up. It'll all be over soon.<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span></span> So, as I was setting up, I realized one of my spindles is still in the classroom completely at the other end of the hotel! I checked my phone for the time - 11:18. I sprinted the entire length of the hotel, grabbed the spindle and sprinted back just in time to start the demo.<br /><br />It went well. I showed several different kinds of spindles. Kept walking away from the mike and then realizing I'd have to go back so people could hear me. But again, it was not as scary as I had anticipated.<br /><br />I went back to the classroom and got everything ready for my afternoon class before heading upstairs to grab lunch. I thought I'd try Starbucks again, but the line was even more ridiculous than yesterday. I figured I'd go to the deli across the street, but I didn't have my coat. So I <span style="font-style: italic;">ran</span><br />to the deli across the street. As I looked around trying to figure out what I wanted I saw Tavy from The Yarn Company. I sat with her and chatted for a few minutes while she said how well I did and how great the demo was. She left to go back to the booth and I got a cup of coffee. As I looked around to see what I wanted for lunch I realized that all my money was locked in the classroom! Why couldn't I have remembered this five minutes ago when I could have said "Hey, Tavy can you spot me a few bucks?" - probably the same reason I can't set an alarm properly.<br />I dug through the change pocket in my purse and scrounged up enough to pay for the coffee. I went back to the classroom, dug out the no longer soft bagel I had never gotten the chance to eat for breakfast and sat down and had lunch? Breakfast? Whatever.<br /><br />I now had about 45 minutes to shop or say hi to vendors before my class started, and since the market was closing before the end of class, I had better do it now.<br /><br />I went back to the llama booth and bought a ball of the softest Cotswold/Bamboo roving ever. I said goodbye to Lexi at the booth and went over to Loop where Christina insisted on taking me to meet Yellowfarm Fiber. But we had to stop at the $10/oz. cashmere booth on the way. They mostly had yarn, but they had some spinning fiber. We told them we wanted an ounce, but when they couldn't get the scale to work they told me to just take it. 0.o Only with Christina would I be able to get something like cashmere for free.<br /><br />I then stopped at The Yarn Company before we headed to Yellowfarm. A nice group with awesome spinning fiber - they had no more dyed locks for sale, but they still had gorgeous balls of roving. They told me to offer my afternoon students a discount at their booth. I thanked them and ran off to teach my last class.<br /><br />Once again, there were students there ahead of me. But this was going to be a smaller class and I was more relaxed now that the demo was over. Yet again, something wasn't right. I looked at two of the students and asked "Did you bring a wheel?" to which they answered no. I said it was in the course description that student must bring a wheel, a lazy kate and 3 bobbins. About half the class said it wasn't in the description. I went to the Vogue staff again and let them know the students weren't aware of what to bring. They assured me it in fact <span style="font-style: italic;">was </span>in the description and asked what they could do to help. I remembered that Yellowfarm had a couple wheels in their booth, so I asked the staff if they could ask Yellowfarm to borrow the wheels for class.<br /><br />In the meantime, I sold the leftover spindle kits to the students who didn't have wheels so they could at least learn to draft. I started the class the same as I had the spindle classes and figured they could take turns on the few wheels we had later. Pretty soon the Vogue staff came back with the awesome people from Yellowfarm toting a couple of Louets for us to use for the class. The whole experience ended up reinforcing the need for students to learn the spindle first - every one of them said they were really happy they learned to draft on the spindle before trying the wheel. I think it makes it much easier.<br /><br />Everyone enjoyed the class and again, I got some really positive feedback. As the last student was leaving the classroom with her wheel in tow, she turned around and said "And it <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> say to bring a wheel."<br /><br />On to the next - I had to bring EVERYTHING out of the classroom and put it SOMEWHERE while I went to the cocktail reception. Except that I realized after everything was packed I couldn't move it all myself. All the bellhops were busy and there were no carts available, so I did the stop and drag a few feet down the hallway when a nice little Chasidic man asked if he could help. I wasn't quite sure where I was going with all of it yet, so he sat in one of the classrooms with my stuff while I ran the box of supplies up to Tavy, who was having a similar crisis of how she was going to get all her stuff back to the store. I then met up with Steph from Loop who said she could take 2 of my bags home for me - I could easily check the other 4 at the coat check at the reception, so I ran back to the room and grabbed the rest of my bags, thanked the nice little man, and met Steph at the corner. She took my wheel bag and my spindle bag and loaded the rest of her things in before she left.<br /><br />I went to get on the bus to the reception, when the Vogue staff person asked me for my ticket. I was frantically searching through my remaining bags when another staffer saw me and asked if I was getting on the bus. I said I couldn't find my ticket and she said "You're an instructor - you don't need a ticket." So I was on the bus headed down to Tribeca.<br /><br />The reception and charity auction was really nice - gorgeous view of, uh, New Jersey. I got to meet more fabulous knitterati, including Lily Chin, Nicky Epstein, the lovely ladies from the farm in New Zealand with the super soft merino, the Vogue Knitting Live and Soho Publishing staff, but my favorite was Shannon Oakey. We met in the elevator and she asked what I was teaching. When I told her spinning, she said she owned a publishing company and was looking for someone to write a spinning book. 0.o I told her I kind of started one and she said we have to talk, gave me her card and introduced me to some of her colleagues. AWESOMESAUCE!!!!<br /><br />I spent the rest of the evening dancing with Tavy and the rest of the crew from The Yarn Company including Debbie Bliss and her daughters.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ThOeuQR7YPbEQYtQX0cL4n-IBV63LuECH7w_-JpBS_t0z8UtOT77c84NG_5OFkAnDwXP9aELxZHVfscy3jptlHTeQv7J0eOljIo1l892s4VLaU-qdTnFLp1ousX4_RbpfBGLTdOr-Dvt/s1600/VKLcocktailparty1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ThOeuQR7YPbEQYtQX0cL4n-IBV63LuECH7w_-JpBS_t0z8UtOT77c84NG_5OFkAnDwXP9aELxZHVfscy3jptlHTeQv7J0eOljIo1l892s4VLaU-qdTnFLp1ousX4_RbpfBGLTdOr-Dvt/s200/VKLcocktailparty1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704924205145994386" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9r2HwqUcVXoiHJcEAgVOFCCjA8qkNCHnnLelQ6zhyphenhyphenp4hXHrfToqX_4Ip203i80BRD5rD1DcOkZa9Yy0sliyNu3t0YjQL8C5TNANoBh9vCRAWd1noDJK4XTHZZ4pqPfYILUdbYCaj3Y8_H/s1600/VKLCocktailparty2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9r2HwqUcVXoiHJcEAgVOFCCjA8qkNCHnnLelQ6zhyphenhyphenp4hXHrfToqX_4Ip203i80BRD5rD1DcOkZa9Yy0sliyNu3t0YjQL8C5TNANoBh9vCRAWd1noDJK4XTHZZ4pqPfYILUdbYCaj3Y8_H/s200/VKLCocktailparty2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704924206757863874" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisCOd9fxzztoTc5kLDhxxMoxUY_KtIxTf5mIX2W6uzhlzZP5GejtFfEFQBXHsLngRMuS-sjhg2JIxAQpkENtsyV74o268rW_kYJ9N1EDFlu0TvRwrzrMdpdgSZ9T8s4D5_awva1g6NTcb_/s1600/VKLcocktailparty4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisCOd9fxzztoTc5kLDhxxMoxUY_KtIxTf5mIX2W6uzhlzZP5GejtFfEFQBXHsLngRMuS-sjhg2JIxAQpkENtsyV74o268rW_kYJ9N1EDFlu0TvRwrzrMdpdgSZ9T8s4D5_awva1g6NTcb_/s200/VKLcocktailparty4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704924226332384930" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Fortunately, we were off Monday, so I had a chance to catch up on some sleep. On Wednesday, Kaffe Fasset and Brandon Mably did a book signing at The Yarn Company. It was great to meet them and hear them speak about their fantastic colorwork. Of course I got their book and two skeins of their awesome yarn!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zy7fFjiLKv2AQ64SDRnnXrbZmYrUd0DTrF1WK8y_lvlBQovhAGw1vHg90L_NN0Y-9qSz5iwXv_3dOkDDsFhcPkJWjFGfbh2Dmop5vfGsHJJydJqEWaV7Pb-q-Nv7azVdEL8qvsVEib8F/s1600/KFBM+003.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zy7fFjiLKv2AQ64SDRnnXrbZmYrUd0DTrF1WK8y_lvlBQovhAGw1vHg90L_NN0Y-9qSz5iwXv_3dOkDDsFhcPkJWjFGfbh2Dmop5vfGsHJJydJqEWaV7Pb-q-Nv7azVdEL8qvsVEib8F/s200/KFBM+003.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704934802068436962" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Love the hat!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIuor1fhsN0kkVxr762mZYHtmvg52J7LqgM6Iex_CEsH0gfHGhM5OmUOLGd9R78lxWO-Qbo8e_iKWNLU8rKElyZB9Dy2SR2MnUbfJS992lP7ps_4IdvOHZXxZ6169Y3PuNg-0hMd0piz7Z/s1600/KFBM+004.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIuor1fhsN0kkVxr762mZYHtmvg52J7LqgM6Iex_CEsH0gfHGhM5OmUOLGd9R78lxWO-Qbo8e_iKWNLU8rKElyZB9Dy2SR2MnUbfJS992lP7ps_4IdvOHZXxZ6169Y3PuNg-0hMd0piz7Z/s200/KFBM+004.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704934810322555794" border="0" /></a><br />Despite all the challenges, Vogue Knitting Live was an awesome and incredibly fun experience! One I definitely hope to have again, but with fewer challenges.BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-22130573025210082522012-01-13T14:43:00.000-08:002012-01-26T10:42:52.913-08:00A Knitting/Spinning weekendI'm getting ready to leave the office and head over to the Hilton for Vogue Knitting Live! It's going to be a fun weekend - I get to do fibery things and socialize with other people who share this craziness. But it's also going to be stressful. Because I am teaching. 0_o And doing a demo on the main stage. Eeeep!<br /><br />I'm sure everything will be fine, but it's the not knowing what to expect that's the killer. I always stress out a little before I teach a new class. But this is a bigger class this time. I just want to do a good job and have my students tell me they really had fun and they learned a lot. And I don't want to stutter or forget stuff or have vegetables in my teeth.<br /><br />Maybe that's why I had so many challenges thrown my way this week. Maybe it was to distract me from REALLY stressing out. Or maybe it was so I could overcome those challenges to think I could accomplish anything. Work was a PITA. New (earlier) hours this week (I get to leave the house 45 minutes earlier and I get home 15 minutes earlier - that's fair), a store visit on Monday, and a barrage of <span style="font-style: italic;">ZOMG WHY IS THIS WRONG???</span> when I got back. All of which I got to answer "Because you asked for it that way." And then an email of "MLK DAY is not a holiday this year" followed an hour later (after a lot of bitching) by an email that said "Whoops! I meant it IS a holiday!" 0_o<br /><br />A week of four hours/night of sleep, a broken dryer, a septic tank that's full and a lack of funds until payday was the tune at home. Plus a bunny who is eating, but still not like he used to, and who occasionally sneezes loudly and vocally to scare the crap out of us.<br /><br />Then there was the email about the VKL teachers reception which said to wear your red handknits. <span style="font-style: italic;">I don't have any red handknits!</span> So I will be finishing (hopefully) my red handspun/handknit moebius scarf sometime before Sunday night. And then the student in the wheel class who doesn't have a wheel, and the shipment of 12 bags of fiber that was supposed to be 30. I was wondering at what point it would be okay to run away screaming.<br /><br />The answer is none. Those challenges were shot at me all week for a reason. Like Wonder Woman catching bullets in her bracelets, I dealt with all of it. I didn't have time to sit around and think <span style="font-style: italic;">OMG I'M GOING TO TALK IN FRONT OF A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE!!!!</span><br /><br />So, I'm going to send one more email, shut down and hail a cab over to the hotel. Rather than hoping I'm ready for my new students, I'm now hoping they're ready for me.BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-70776043841448061822011-11-09T09:26:00.001-08:002011-11-09T10:14:00.016-08:00It wasn't supposed to happen like this<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCv4K9IkLzq2F1DrIcXRNZ5Ovp64ah0GvsUcurE45gieR-vapSL7LdcO4youqz8duDxlUAeGjvi2WvlHHuUnW1A9H7VQjXGU09XGrXIRvlThxpTD88QuyywVPRWhMdQSLkTGB_wi2Imp3s/s1600/1jtz-z9qun5.jpeg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCv4K9IkLzq2F1DrIcXRNZ5Ovp64ah0GvsUcurE45gieR-vapSL7LdcO4youqz8duDxlUAeGjvi2WvlHHuUnW1A9H7VQjXGU09XGrXIRvlThxpTD88QuyywVPRWhMdQSLkTGB_wi2Imp3s/s200/1jtz-z9qun5.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5673048837636472018" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I can't believe this. JoePa is retiring at the end of this season. That means this Saturday is the last game he will coach at Beaver Stadium and I can't go. :(<br /><br />This is so freaking sad. I feel like a little kid who just got kicked in the stomach and told there's no Santa Claus. I'm so sick at the whole thing. All the media talks about with regard to this incident is Joe, because that's the name they're familiar with (oh and BTW, if you're not familiar with the name Jerry Sandusky, you have no business being a so-called sports writer) so that's who they focus on dragging down.<br /><br />Every article talks about how Joe didn't handle the situation properly. But I have yet to read the article that says how he <span style="font-style: italic;">should have</span> handled it. Joe went to his superiors with the information and they did nothing. What else was he supposed to do? He couldn't go to the police and say "Somebody told me they saw something" - police don't answer calls like that. Why didn't the witness who saw the incident go to the police himself? He was an adult and as such, maybe HE should have been the one to handle the situation better. That's who I have issues with. Him and Jerry Sandusky. <span style="font-style: italic;">LEAVE JOE ALONE!</span><br /><br />I know Joe is in his eighties and would probably retire soon, but it should not have been this way. I will always think of JoePa as the best college football coach ever. I was fortunate enough to attend many games as a student and as an alumni, watching him pace up and down the sidelines with those thick glasses and those ridiculous pants. I was even able to attend the 1987 Fiesta Bowl where underdog Penn State beat Miami to win the national championship my senior year - a memory I will never forget. I've even met Joe a few times on campus. He's like a God on that campus, and he could be as aloof as he wants, but he's not. He always smiles and says hello. Not a lot of sports figures are as friendly as that.<br /><br />But everyone is reading all the negative press and jumping on the hater bandwagon. I understand not everyone went to Penn State and shares my love of JoePa, but I just don't feel like reading the negative bullshit anymore. The worst has happened - he's announced his retirement. I got the news, yeleld and swore a lot, slammed the phone down and went outside for a tearful walk. I don't need all the negative commentary. If something terrible happened to someone you really admire, would you want to hear someone else bash them? Neither do I. So I think I'm just going to avoid reading anything online for the next little while. I have enough else to do anyway. People need to realize the university is far more than this incident.<br /><br />Oh, and for the record I am and will always be Penn State Proud!BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-44323614654002215392011-11-07T14:48:00.000-08:002011-11-08T14:58:38.917-08:00A Whole Other PostOkay, here it is. The story about the house.<br /><br />I usually don't like to speak negatively of people, but it is difficult to convey what we've been through without mentioning some things about the previous tenants.<br /><br />For the past 4 1/2 years we've been living in the basement apartment of a house, which the family upstairs was renting from the property owner. For whatever reasons I don't need to go into here, they were asked to leave and we were given the option of moving upstairs. The day before Irene, the moving trucks were there, they loaded up and were gone. So we went upstairs to see what the place looked like.<br /><br />It's a much bigger space - 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, living room, dining room, work room, foyer and a porch. A lot of it was designed with a lot of thought in mind - a huge pantry with pull out shelves, bedroom closets with lights that go on when you open the doors, stuff like that. But most of the things had not been cared for in many years and there was a lot of damage and enough stuff left behind to more than fill a 30 yard dumpster.<br /><br />We were able to work a deal with the property owner - 2 months free rent while we work on the place. So we're in the third month now, paid our first rent check and we're still working. I think he got the better deal.<br /><br />The previous two months have been full of setbacks - problems with the utility companies, a sick bunny, a wall falling out, bad plumbing, etc. But last night I was able to walk into any room of the house I wanted and turn on a light just by flipping a switch. What a novel idea. It finally is starting to feel like the place is ours.<br /><br />I wanted to do before and after pictures, but I only have the before pics. A few of them are below:<br /><br />My future craft room (the yellow is going!):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwRpspofLWMNvJwud8LZ6fjx_QW_2P-cTeNrvQMzgDigXbYs9KLOdtge4Xi0k_OckuhafkI4IYAGkS21BDTbgP1xO0HakwrrBOKqd00koZ83z41FE_SmVHOgWObS55oOb-fUsyR0CE11r/s1600/3bdrm2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwRpspofLWMNvJwud8LZ6fjx_QW_2P-cTeNrvQMzgDigXbYs9KLOdtge4Xi0k_OckuhafkI4IYAGkS21BDTbgP1xO0HakwrrBOKqd00koZ83z41FE_SmVHOgWObS55oOb-fUsyR0CE11r/s200/3bdrm2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672397000040599314" border="0" /></a><br />Our future exercise room:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCbNRIfRwKd-I4oyrb4ai_BqxHorU0I-iUkqVNMl7sgRV518stFcRVYxhyphenhyphenapIDU30gnxqI8vkxhFo-Y0I52dFNJd7a681Zpzo86Mg13OVs09S2O_9oZbFICs2RPzIxmoPCe1iqtunr-Sd/s1600/2bdrm1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCbNRIfRwKd-I4oyrb4ai_BqxHorU0I-iUkqVNMl7sgRV518stFcRVYxhyphenhyphenapIDU30gnxqI8vkxhFo-Y0I52dFNJd7a681Zpzo86Mg13OVs09S2O_9oZbFICs2RPzIxmoPCe1iqtunr-Sd/s200/2bdrm1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672397007219690082" border="0" /></a><br />Future master bedroom:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZJK0ZzE8A8ANMZhfcJR5VirpCSihn0Fe5HwlcwH6CxK9ONAIM3E1tc6QGfsw4CqpnsXr8z63VEaliEUDUZ4aGh_Mlz03q-tPxgV9DjyLtXKfP1qcbhnxqGRnTtn_RTXdzk4AYId1aJlOy/s1600/bedrm3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZJK0ZzE8A8ANMZhfcJR5VirpCSihn0Fe5HwlcwH6CxK9ONAIM3E1tc6QGfsw4CqpnsXr8z63VEaliEUDUZ4aGh_Mlz03q-tPxgV9DjyLtXKfP1qcbhnxqGRnTtn_RTXdzk4AYId1aJlOy/s200/bedrm3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672397016662844482" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Dining Room:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfe7EtvDCw6Xw4nb7tuLqGYrQt4Av3B9zsslWjzJIvHXGr2OKIxWQr1B8Y_OItDmT7nzgrIiTmyEm76Vd3-d4FXS4wRnPVhC_cilWCGwDoBALLOwBpCXOnJ7E4tLlKeWnHwpRX_wHqUjL6/s1600/diningrm.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfe7EtvDCw6Xw4nb7tuLqGYrQt4Av3B9zsslWjzJIvHXGr2OKIxWQr1B8Y_OItDmT7nzgrIiTmyEm76Vd3-d4FXS4wRnPVhC_cilWCGwDoBALLOwBpCXOnJ7E4tLlKeWnHwpRX_wHqUjL6/s200/diningrm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672397026152574450" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Living room:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj884tetGsXpeTBnkre2NmUPOVzNakNKgN80J5FL8nWlbFaM0wJPrhN0Y50YRjbJH4rW7ocP4TlT_Yxj-Wk5xcVDUM05qo-ZvVMbDSdDNN2jZOgHRR96DXVELm0_ndD6E7gabZjrxi1LK_g/s1600/Livingrm.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj884tetGsXpeTBnkre2NmUPOVzNakNKgN80J5FL8nWlbFaM0wJPrhN0Y50YRjbJH4rW7ocP4TlT_Yxj-Wk5xcVDUM05qo-ZvVMbDSdDNN2jZOgHRR96DXVELm0_ndD6E7gabZjrxi1LK_g/s200/Livingrm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672397039447063730" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Kitchen:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKb-LwmitGJ1aCKJ6CiajvTnW5TDV5qEM6x3WR4rC1vq9-vGOvhcED6Rv56jFymkRp5JjaoPZxm-6MoGnOHeoBCJ9_YLB-dqiZE4AOziefBi-A69Dw1g6v3KJd-rxrSUqNIgdWyoqO5bCK/s1600/kitchen4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKb-LwmitGJ1aCKJ6CiajvTnW5TDV5qEM6x3WR4rC1vq9-vGOvhcED6Rv56jFymkRp5JjaoPZxm-6MoGnOHeoBCJ9_YLB-dqiZE4AOziefBi-A69Dw1g6v3KJd-rxrSUqNIgdWyoqO5bCK/s200/kitchen4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672398155932119410" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Scott's future work room (can you find the full size washer and dryer in this picture?):<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5P5IT8ePKdfxdsCULvwPz5fiXqZS6I_4s8lFGDdCsYxfuvD1NSugMAptBZ_gCvgrX8OJLIWJkWxVBWb80VPNU0_7uoDV1kUbOuuY_J15E0E4IQe7cyAHs0uUtJcWWPQxjugSKivAecdHu/s1600/hoarderrm2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5P5IT8ePKdfxdsCULvwPz5fiXqZS6I_4s8lFGDdCsYxfuvD1NSugMAptBZ_gCvgrX8OJLIWJkWxVBWb80VPNU0_7uoDV1kUbOuuY_J15E0E4IQe7cyAHs0uUtJcWWPQxjugSKivAecdHu/s200/hoarderrm2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672398181943827074" border="0" /></a><br />Porch:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKzusO9Vyo8_WJuo1aNTLqhrFoZCMkR30KIMlyghwKTh078U636iWeMNLF1Fa22-s0BIMBtG0v0XbH1HEcEbP2OOMaJ_iI9LsbltxuD9epkMoPlPt7_mbguFJuDLSOs_HdHKN4K6w5NcR/s1600/porch.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKzusO9Vyo8_WJuo1aNTLqhrFoZCMkR30KIMlyghwKTh078U636iWeMNLF1Fa22-s0BIMBtG0v0XbH1HEcEbP2OOMaJ_iI9LsbltxuD9epkMoPlPt7_mbguFJuDLSOs_HdHKN4K6w5NcR/s200/porch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672398168458571938" border="0" /></a>BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-61124559414297454342011-11-04T13:38:00.000-07:002011-11-04T14:11:38.108-07:00Where I've beenActually, I've been here all along. Just been busy. You know, with stuff.<br /><br />Staring with Irene. Bitch. We heard there was this big storm coming and there would probably be flooding. Our driveway always washes out, and we had just had it repaired from the Spring washout (no shit, WEDNESDAY before Irene the shit was fixed!) when Irene came in.<br /><br />Oh great. It's raining. It's doing whatever it's doing, but it's early Sunday morning and I want to sleep. But no. Scott is waking me up excitedly saying "You have to come see this!" Whatever it is, won't it be much more impressive a few hours from now, like when I'm awake? Whatever. I put on my glasses and go look out the window. Wow - the pond is in the backyard now. Impressive. I go back to sleep.<br /><br />"I'm going to take a walk outside and make sure everything is okay" he says as he wakes me again. "Okay" I mumbled. At least he won't be waking me up while he's outside. I go back to sleep.<br /><br />2 seconds (I swear, it felt like 2 seconds) later there is a hand shaking my foot. "I may need your help with something." Oh, Christ - I know what it is. I distinctly remember asking SOMEONE to move the car yesterday. But it wasn't moved. So I got dressed and went outside to see this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXf3sAxSbOr_cpzwTJqFzLHxRxaJ6XzpqvhFBgO3HWFMecQH7mw9vYk2OKdVVgVDfqbltq9z4WP6X-7_Z4xzN_avLQn9d7s38epWJgbt1QJtugUUOSaZCGb8vnp_tFRK5Z8Ix9WmBU0Dnj/s1600/car.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXf3sAxSbOr_cpzwTJqFzLHxRxaJ6XzpqvhFBgO3HWFMecQH7mw9vYk2OKdVVgVDfqbltq9z4WP6X-7_Z4xzN_avLQn9d7s38epWJgbt1QJtugUUOSaZCGb8vnp_tFRK5Z8Ix9WmBU0Dnj/s200/car.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671245429089761490" border="0" /></a><br /><br />What the everloving fuck? Would the car start? Would he be able to get it out of there? Fortunately, the answers were yes and yes, but there was water in the floor pan and it smelled for weeks.<br /><br />Yay! The car is safe! I can go back to bed! I go back in the house, put my jammies back on and step into the bedroom - splat! There is now water coming up through the floor in the bedroom - the only carpeted room in the house! So fuck sleep, I'm sucking up as much water as I can with a Shop Vac, but the minute I stop it just comes right back up. Scott goes to see if the neighbors need help and I just keep vacuuming. A few minutes later an alarm starts going off - I'm not sure where. It's loud and chirpy. then I remember that he put a water sensor in one of the hall closets in case water got in - that must be it.<br /><br />So I'm vacuuming up all the water and I can't go shut off the stupid chirpy thing because the water will just get out of hand. Finally, Scott comes back as this thing is beeping away. "There's an alarm going off in the hall." I said. "I think there might be some kind of emergency." He shut it off and I continued.<br /><br />After about an hour or so the water stopped coming in, but the carpet had sponged up most of it. We tried using a disinfectant, but there was too much moisture in the carpet for too long and we had to rip it out. We lost some furniture too, but we were fortunate - many people had it much worse.<br /><br />Here are some of the photos:<br /><br />The camp next door:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirATX96Br2Ar0yKE-Xu0SBxEcOCIvfnv0S_vhEbAbevTmS-pyAAesR986V3_pG7oGc6QQ3ekBUlRUre7iLEyaYV8shkJbBMUSI7FHt57-oSvMyhEuePqD78to6NER_AambQH1rhb8CCUXq/s1600/camp2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirATX96Br2Ar0yKE-Xu0SBxEcOCIvfnv0S_vhEbAbevTmS-pyAAesR986V3_pG7oGc6QQ3ekBUlRUre7iLEyaYV8shkJbBMUSI7FHt57-oSvMyhEuePqD78to6NER_AambQH1rhb8CCUXq/s200/camp2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671250164403391458" border="0" /></a><br />Our pond (I think):<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Z3q0iAT1YKKcwKCRwKyPxYLwf_U9Mp2Icqm6mS5EaKEj6QzJ64pcQFE547QxKFnR6L823FPGICwj48KwU9Rkwe859jgXlCN91rB8Mn_8005tPpJ8ULsC0q-_nkI7ZdX01vWz6JRdbfPp/s1600/pond7.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Z3q0iAT1YKKcwKCRwKyPxYLwf_U9Mp2Icqm6mS5EaKEj6QzJ64pcQFE547QxKFnR6L823FPGICwj48KwU9Rkwe859jgXlCN91rB8Mn_8005tPpJ8ULsC0q-_nkI7ZdX01vWz6JRdbfPp/s200/pond7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671250184420001330" border="0" /></a><br />The pool next door at Krucker's:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg00k44GTPtf-9oV_RBwSygV2XIJeImsUx2M9DqvxqKhITuEeGx1t3ueY_NcbfSnFC96GkesVxR0bpfTVmVXQs4UeuuvVE3ayZIVQa8-a3IC9eQ9bV_dOqc0PeY67cBvd_NPj5v4h8XqhTW/s1600/kruckers5.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg00k44GTPtf-9oV_RBwSygV2XIJeImsUx2M9DqvxqKhITuEeGx1t3ueY_NcbfSnFC96GkesVxR0bpfTVmVXQs4UeuuvVE3ayZIVQa8-a3IC9eQ9bV_dOqc0PeY67cBvd_NPj5v4h8XqhTW/s200/kruckers5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671250204704588098" border="0" /></a><br />Scott in the driveway:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzWZDL7orf6QuJmX3_GXDSQ9sOdpf3R5kLf8o-Fre1eNRmAD3DAEiSmBwMaWuFe5KsMleWwx5YiKXMGNXVwOsToCeMGYD-pm__52SRHLEUaZ-lu4sdaqj9w-LgUiOY0row1Pl1AKPYagu/s1600/drvwy8.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzWZDL7orf6QuJmX3_GXDSQ9sOdpf3R5kLf8o-Fre1eNRmAD3DAEiSmBwMaWuFe5KsMleWwx5YiKXMGNXVwOsToCeMGYD-pm__52SRHLEUaZ-lu4sdaqj9w-LgUiOY0row1Pl1AKPYagu/s200/drvwy8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671250174431298354" border="0" /></a><br />The other fun started the day before when our upstairs neighbors moved out, but that's a whole other post.BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-42127746192109075522011-10-27T06:05:00.000-07:002011-10-27T06:49:40.658-07:00Rainy DayFirst attempt at blogging from my iPhone, so bear with me.<br /><br />A lot has happened in the past few months, but I haven't documented it here yet. I will. But I want to write about this first.<br /><br />As I walked out of the house this morning, it was raining lightly. I walked to the dumpster to throw the trash when I noticed the sound of the rain hitting the many trees on the side of the mountain. I love the sound of rain, but this was like a large rain orchestra playing a piano (meaning "softly", not the instrument, for you non-band geeks) section of the piece before the crescendo. It was lovely.<br /><br />I got in the car thinking "Why can't I work from home so I can take a few extra minutes and enjoy this, rather than rushing off because I might miss the train?" I want to take a walk and enjoy nature's concert, admire the fall colors, smell everything so fresh and so clean clean. ;) Then I'll go have a fresh cup of coffee as I take out my spinning, picking colors to resemble the fall landscape. I'll find a good rainy day movie to watch while I'm spinning, because I find daytime TV insufferable. Of course I'll take several breaks to play with a bunny and refill my coffee cup. I'll put some chicken soup in the crock pot for dinner and bake some fresh bread to go with it and the whole house will smell amazing.<br /><br />But instead, I am on the train on my way to a sloppy, wet jaunt to the office where I will answer emails, measure a ton of tee shirts and try to figure out the fit problems with our new line, the whole time fantasizing about the Martha Stewart life I've described above. Maybe someday. Publisher's Clearing House, are you reading this? Please come visit me with the big check in my name this time. :) You can even stay for dinner.BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-50951484275335327162011-08-05T11:45:00.000-07:002011-08-05T14:08:58.063-07:00Why I Need This Bobdamn Vacation - so I can Enjoy my CoffeeI usually don't have many complaints about work - I love my job. I love the company. I love their products. I also love coffee. But if someone tried to steal it or slap the cup out of my hand every time I took a sip, or refill the cup until it overflowed and then I had to clean it up, I probably wouldn't want to drink it as often as I do.<br /><br />The amount of work I have is insane. I handle spec and fit for ALL the menswear in our company - which is our main product. Just me. There are six product managers who handle the fabric, trim and styling approvals for the same products. SIX of them, ONE of me. That's fair. We have another full-time spec person here who handles our women's line - he has about 1/3 of the product I do. So I have a LOT of work. But I handle it.<br /><br />So the owner of the company thought it would be a good idea for me to take our fit model and do 2 fittings a month at our retail stores. The weeks that I do this, it adds 2 days of work for me that week - one out of the office and one back in the office writing emails of what I found in the store. Here is where the coffee overflows all over my desk and all I can think when people bring me more is "Can't you wait until I've cleaned <span style="font-style: italic;">this</span> up?"<br /><br />Yet I'm still handling it. The metric fuckton of work doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as this next crap.<br /><br />They've been shuffling the products between the different product managers (I guess that's the advantage to being just one person on the job) so every time I think I know who handles what, it changes. They brought in two new people to handle the denim line - that's cool - they have a lot of experience with denim in another well-known company.<br /><br />These two noticed how much work I had, and one morning, Denim Guy comes to my desk and tells me they talked to my boss and they're getting me some help. They hired a temp to take all the denim product from me. This didn't sound to me like they wanted to "help" me. It sounded more like they hated the way I handled the denim and found someone they thought was better. I developed all our denim specs with the head designers and the owner's wife when I first started here - I've managed this product from the beginning - why was I being left out now? This is MY coffee! I ground it and brewed it just for ME! If you want some, you need to ask ME!!<br /><br />If they really wanted to help me, they would have come to me, not gone to my boss behind my back. This was a big red flag not to trust these people. (Wraps hand around coffee cup as they walk by.)<br /><br />Denim Guy was all flustered and disappointed when I wasn't all happy about his news. I didn't care - I was pretty pissed at the way it was done. So I sat in my fit sample cave with my headphones on (and my coffee) and didn't talk to anyone for two days. After the second day, Denim Guy and Denim Chick called me into a meeting and apologized for not including me. And that was the last time I was included. Temp has started working on the denim and I still haven't worked on anything with her except to tell her where to find stuff - not everything, of course. >:D (Hahaha - I'll never tell you where I keep the GOOD coffee!)<br /><br />After Temp had been here a week, my boss mentioned that Temp was re-doing all the denim specs because I did them wrong. 0_o WTF?? They were so <span style="font-style: italic;">sorry</span> for going behind my back and not including me, that they went behind my back <span style="font-style: italic;">again</span> and told my boss I did it wrong instead of asking <span style="font-style: italic;">me</span> why I did it that way. So now I not only have coffee all over my desk, I also have to keep watching my back for that guy who's trying to steal my coffee. <span style="font-style: italic;">I just want to do my fucking job! I don't want to have to watch my back every second too!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></span>But<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>wait - there's more!<br /><br />Most of my coworkers are pretty cool. There's one who is so annoying she's earned the name Co-Irker. Every office (or group project if you're still in school) has one - she talks loud and fast (she sounds like the Asian Santa in the Christmas episode of <span style="font-style: italic;">Family Guy</span> - go watch it - you'll see) and she runs around the office shuffling papers to look as busy as possible while actually not doing much. She was complaining about how much work she had the other day. When she showed me the pile it was a quarter of the size of the pile on my desk. <span style="font-style: italic;">Stabbity.</span><br /><br />She's incredibly rude - she waits until the end of the day to bring me samples, she'll email me at 5:45 asking if I can send comments out today. She shows up at the fit meetings with a stack of samples without telling me first and then pushes to get them all fit so we don't have time for other people's stuff. She interrupts me at lunch and when I'm on the phone. When a factory emails me with a question, she forwards me the email again with "Can you answer this?", even though I've asked her not to do this because my email fills up too quickly.<br /><br />If all this didn't make me stabby enough, a few weeks ago when she was on vacation, one of her factories wanted to change a zipper on a jacket and they needed approval that day. I consulted the only people who were here who could answer that - two designers - and they both agreed to change the zipper. So I emailed the factory. Well, she came back Monday morning and had a Royal Fit. She emailed the factory and cc'd our boss saying why did they ask a Tech Designer to approve a zipper and were they crazy and WAAAHWAAAHWAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! So I got an email from Boss saying don't approve anything but spec and fit. Fine. Whatev.<br /><br />So yesterday (here comes that slap of the coffee cup), she sends spec comments to one of the factories without asking me about it! I ignored her email and sent my own comments, which were not the same as hers - she wanted the pockets lowered 3/4", I wanted them lowered 2" - which is our regular placement. Again, she had a fit because SHE already commented first! After arguing with her I said fine - we'll do it your way. She proceeded to reply to the factory's email which was addressed to ME. I sent her a reply asking to please let ME reply to all spec and fit issues so we don't confuse the factories and because it is MY JOB. She replied that maybe there is a communication issue and we should sit down with Boss to resolve it. I said "Bring it." Actually I just said "Fine." The "Bring it" was implied.<br /><br />So here I am, with my desk covered in coffee, trying to watch my back for the people trying to steal it or knock the cup out of my hand. <span style="font-style: italic;">Can't I just enjoy the damn coffee???</span><br /><br />Fortunately, Boss has been to busy to meet with us over something so stupid. Maybe we'll sit down next week. Who knows. I just know next time she tries to knock my cup out of my hand I'm throwing it in her face.BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-82147073103934307472011-07-01T09:06:00.000-07:002011-07-01T09:27:47.697-07:00Actual Spinning Content: Tour de Fleece 2011Spin city is participating in the Tour de Fleece again this year. It's a competition that runs in conjuction with the Tour de France - this year from July 2 to July 22 - and each person sets their own goal. My goal this year is to spin a pound of fiber. But not just a pound of plain 'ol fiber. I'm celebrating the fact that thanks to Governor Cuomo, many of my gay friends who have worked so hard campaigning for years can finally get married in the great state of NY! So I am spinning the colors of the rainbow - 2 oz. of each color - plus 2 oz of white fiber to equal a pound.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidVUWnP5Jl94dUsfsd0IXJWhzWCOe-gDP61tbPpm4y1oCfhg_vmTVMPanJhVjmTjx_JdRzUq_VJr_DS2BQVZRrGRBcV7qyE_-6-Z4nXReCHS6rCyWcJ0MFZR9HJMClKX9BUsPlmJmSqZZ4/s1600/6-30+012.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidVUWnP5Jl94dUsfsd0IXJWhzWCOe-gDP61tbPpm4y1oCfhg_vmTVMPanJhVjmTjx_JdRzUq_VJr_DS2BQVZRrGRBcV7qyE_-6-Z4nXReCHS6rCyWcJ0MFZR9HJMClKX9BUsPlmJmSqZZ4/s200/6-30+012.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624418800676325106" border="0" /></a><br />From left to right:<br />Red = striped merino from The Yarn Tree<br />Orange = 80/20 merino/silk from TheYarn Company<br />Yellow = I can't remember what fiber, but I dyed it with Kool-Aid<br />Green = koigu Targhee roving from MDSW 2010<br />Blue = misc fiber batts from Stitches East 2009<br />Indigo = don't know what from a recent fiber swap<br />Violet = romney from CTSW 2010<br />White = merino/silk/angora from The Yarn Tree<br /><br />I have a bunch of empty spindles and a brand new pre-owned Roadbug portable wheel to get me started. It's going to be a lot of spinning for the next few weeks. I'll post pictures and updates whenever I can. :)BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-76077604099420459572011-05-16T16:17:00.000-07:002011-05-17T12:19:27.144-07:00Close Encounters of the Furred Kind<span style="font-style: italic;">NEW AND POSSIBLY IMPROVED</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span>I tried taking some pictures somewhere during the course of this event, but they all came out blurry - probably because it was getting dark and the batteries were dying. So, to make a visual recreation, I used one of my photos of the pond as a backdrop and I've cut and pasted some other photos and stick figures. DON'T JUDGE ME!! I AM TRYING TO DO THIS AT WORK!!</span><br /><br /><br />After the Yankees/Red Sox game on Friday night, shopping and planting all day Saturday and doing spinning demos with Spin City at the Queens Farm Sheep Shearing on Sunday, I was ready for a nice, relaxing evening before having to start another work week.<span style=""> </span>Scott was helping friends move upstate all day, so he picked me up at the train, we went out to dinner, picked up a few things at Shop Rite and went home.<br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It was dusk, so I figured I would take a few minutes to go out to the pond and see if there were any turtles or frogs still hanging around.<span style=""> </span>There weren’t – we usually see them more during the day.<span style=""> </span>There were about 10 geese hanging out on the pond with one mallard trying to fit into the crowd.<span style=""> </span>I did one last scan for amphibians and was about to turn to go back to the house when I heard something walking toward me under the trees.<span style=""> </span>I turned to see a HUGE black bear WITH HER CUBS about 20 feet away from me!<span style=""> </span>I felt like I may as well have been covered in barbecue sauce because I was convinced I was going to be dinner.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">This is about how far I actually was from the bear:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3mwr1nOdg6pursxngg0coY59qU_VrL_iUmabV0i1mo9wEGlxVzIRJz2xSMylZF6_jH9ZOEQMG-9xnLgGDvaGgeRKFjCQZ3VtNAWjc-_qfjQtjwWMEku6cpPZtzDuwmWAxyoGiL8FPhe6n/s1600/HCIW.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 281px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3mwr1nOdg6pursxngg0coY59qU_VrL_iUmabV0i1mo9wEGlxVzIRJz2xSMylZF6_jH9ZOEQMG-9xnLgGDvaGgeRKFjCQZ3VtNAWjc-_qfjQtjwWMEku6cpPZtzDuwmWAxyoGiL8FPhe6n/s200/HCIW.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607749108526100498" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">And this is how far it felt like I was from the bear:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqmO9_2n89Xu_v6FRSReRSfgdvOEGTUSMTSI3C6tIP4gmUzqUD7BOP32cmCxZGWSpDgX62xLbdMZlP2gEiNI_lx2lRyKSEzfHBGfRqLitLDevWb44mrkpEiT0G3c5SXSJVAvhe8QzVEbj5/s1600/HCIF.jpg"><br /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4nt8Ny0hQ0NXiMANvVq0r1j_lKoG3brzBj7GyImhq_2dXqKLVAcL8_EkPBXUkEFUj5orgdFqWgRDT6zsFg9s1Hnx_KQnStCpuhuO1uiN-czO8syLsJbupSHpOrzutmqCKGZ13Ks1o2AN/s1600/HCIF.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4nt8Ny0hQ0NXiMANvVq0r1j_lKoG3brzBj7GyImhq_2dXqKLVAcL8_EkPBXUkEFUj5orgdFqWgRDT6zsFg9s1Hnx_KQnStCpuhuO1uiN-czO8syLsJbupSHpOrzutmqCKGZ13Ks1o2AN/s200/HCIF.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607755283745401330" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">It seemed so surreal at first, because about a month ago I had EXACTLY this dream!<span style=""> </span>I was outside and did not notice there was a bear near me until he was uncomfortably close.<span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, I woke up right after that, so I didn’t even have any answers – just a weird bit of déjà vu to add to my “OH SHIT!” feeling.<span style=""> </span>I had to figure out what to do.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I was too far from the house to get there safely and unnoticed.<span style=""> </span>Should I stand there and let them walk by?<span style=""> </span>Yeah, that’d work.<span style=""> </span>Bears never eat anything standing still.<span style=""> </span>Lie down and play dead?<span style=""> </span>That only works in cartoons.<span style=""> </span>I definitely knew that I should NOT run!<span style=""> </span>Bear food usually runs and I did NOT want to look like food!<span style=""> </span>Confront her hoping she’ll run away?<span style=""> </span>If I knew she’d run, that would be a good option, but I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to risk pissing her off – she was a lot bigger and could easily kick my ass.<span style=""> </span>Climbing a tree was out – I can’t climb trees and bears are excellent climbers.<span style=""> </span>I did the only thing I could do – I backed away slowly toward the gazebo – I needed to put something – anything – between me and her.<span style=""> </span>She was still walking in my direction, but not quickly or threateningly.<span style=""> </span>I kept inching backward until I was next to the gazebo and slipped through the screen flap.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Okay, so now how do I get out of here?<span style=""> </span>If I stay still in here they might walk past and not see me because of the screen.<span style=""> </span>But she had stopped coming toward me – she was just hanging out under one of the trees.<span style=""> </span>Why was I out here by myself?<span style=""> </span>Scott didn’t even know I was outside.<span style=""> </span>If I had my cell phone I could call the house, but I didn’t.<span style=""> </span>Why didn’t I have my cell phone with me?<span style=""> </span>This is why we should always go outside together – because it’s when you’re talking and making noise that the bears don’t want to be – WAIT!!!<span style=""> </span>THAT’S IT!!!!<span style=""> </span>Bears don’t like people noise!<span style=""> </span>I needed Scott’s help anyway, so I stood in the corner of the gazebo and screamed as loud as I could “SCOTT!!!”<span style=""> </span>No reply.<span style=""> </span>I kept screaming for him – I figured eventually someone would hear me and come to help.<span style=""> </span>The bear looked in my direction like “What’s that screamy thing over there?” but she stayed under the same tree.<span style=""> </span>I saw her, but I didn’t see the cubs.<span style=""> </span>Where did they go? I was sure she had cubs with her.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">FINALLY, I thought I heard Scott yell “DONNA???” inside the house and I yelled back “SCOTT!! HELP ME!! I’M OUTSIDE!!”<span style=""> </span>The next thing I saw was the screen door folding over as he burst through it and into the yard.<span style=""> </span>He looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator- at least that's what I pictured.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU20sNfVhc4Z96mUaTLHSuZXlK0tliR-xa4cziB3O4sNjzygirrowjbqXrNxAjJYFhRARL3PND2uExumnN9SLkFquyXWkwFv9-HTHGZniQkslQbv1vy-jCphYNtT0xMvbKt7fD2hqZcjRe/s1600/hlvb.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 351px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU20sNfVhc4Z96mUaTLHSuZXlK0tliR-xa4cziB3O4sNjzygirrowjbqXrNxAjJYFhRARL3PND2uExumnN9SLkFquyXWkwFv9-HTHGZniQkslQbv1vy-jCphYNtT0xMvbKt7fD2hqZcjRe/s200/hlvb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607755287189789218" border="0" /></a></p> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2CGvmwsGx4fsJtXLL4qI6QIzAs463agw8WhHDyUkTirSM8n5qKGM_DXwwjuM0jGG3dAsu7NXFVZdHbhqJZJAKTz1-ssCRR8gpX0EAnRLhQTCKvMc_Pw63i2OJbCx49pS5_X10H8Un-QEB/s1600/GASB.jpg"><br /></a><br /><br />“WHERE ARE YOU?” he yelled.<span style=""> </span>I forgot he couldn’t see me through the screen because it was getting dark.<br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“I’M IN THE GAZEBO BUT THERE’S A BEAR BY THE POND!”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">He looked over and saw the bear. “She’s beautiful!”<span style=""> </span>0_o<span style=""> </span>That’s nice, but I didn’t want to talk about how beautiful she was, I wanted to talk about getting me the fuck out of there!<span style=""> </span>“Stay right there – I’ll be back” he told me.<span style=""> </span>Like where would I go?<span style=""> </span>He went back in the house for what seemed like an eternity and came out with a sickle and a machete.<span style=""> </span>He started walking toward the bear clanging them together and yelling “Get outta here!” to try to get her to leave. She walked back a few steps, but stayed close to the same tree.<span style=""> </span>Scott was a few steps from the door of the gazebo at this point and said “Come out toward me.”<span style=""> </span>I walked slowly over to him but did not take my eyes off the bear.<span style=""> </span>We inched toward the house while she stared at us from the base of the tree.<span style=""> </span>I was finally able to get safely inside the house.<span style=""> </span>Now I could breathe.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Apparently, I had a bit of memory FAIL at this point. I originally thought he had the machete and sickle when he first came outside. He was actually holding a can of air freshener, so in reality, it was more like this:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2o4YzW_eb-HLIGhjjcITf3KO0m6NMapIum6g1QSg16iL4yGqFwbB6TeujAZijeum2QBC1EoULE6sFwbDXbzI9KOsDgebQbqZ12z72NsJTgJu6ooBGo0Z0LZsHLl8geamHHrL5_cJ9bJZg/s1600/GASB.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 328px; height: 229px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2o4YzW_eb-HLIGhjjcITf3KO0m6NMapIum6g1QSg16iL4yGqFwbB6TeujAZijeum2QBC1EoULE6sFwbDXbzI9KOsDgebQbqZ12z72NsJTgJu6ooBGo0Z0LZsHLl8geamHHrL5_cJ9bJZg/s200/GASB.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607754537329530498" border="0" /></a></p><br /> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">So, back at the house I couldn’t believe that with all the noise we made that our upstairs neighbors weren’t out on their porch wondering what happened.<span style=""> </span>Scott called to Ed, Breda and their kids and they came to the window.<span style=""> </span>“I thought you’d want to see this” Scott said, pointing to the bear now laying down at the base of the tree.<span style=""> </span>Everyone thought it was really cool.<span style=""> </span>I agreed – from this distance – not from out by the pond where I was earlier!<span style=""> </span>“This is cool” Ed said “but I don’t want her to be comfortable here.<span style=""> </span>I think we should chase her away.”<span style=""> </span>They decided to use the lawn mower to make noise, so Ed and Scott ran into the shed to get the mower.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">When they came out I said “Just be careful because I saw cubs with her”.<span style=""> </span>Ed walked over to the woods to see if he could see where they were, but they were nowhere to be found.<span style=""> </span>I knew I saw cubs- I was sure of it!<span style=""> </span>I wouldn’t have been quite as scared if I didn’t see the cubs. I didn’t want either of the guys to accidentally get too close to them – wherever they were hiding – and set off mom.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">They started up the mower and pushed it toward the bear under the tree.<span style=""> </span>I thought “This is what we have to do to get Ed to mow the lawn?”<span style=""> </span>0.o<span style=""> </span>As they approached her she sprang to her feet and scaled the tree trunk up into the boughs where we couldn’t see her.<span style=""> </span>Ed and Scott ran to the base of the tree to see how far she had climbed.<span style=""> </span>“That’ll suck if a 400 lb. bear falls on you” I thought.<span style=""> </span>But they knew what they were doing.<span style=""> </span>I guess.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">They started up the mower again and were pushing it around the base of the tree when Ellie – Ed’s 12 year old daughter – came running out into the yard screaming “STOP!! STOP!! THE BABIES ARE IN THE TREE!!”<span style=""> </span>They stopped the mower and everyone looked up at the tree mama bear had climbed.<span style=""> </span>She was too well hidden to be seen. I looked toward the top of the tree, but still couldn’t see anything moving.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Then I looked at the next tree over and sure enough there were 5 little black lumps hugging the tree trunk way up near the top, inching their way higher.<span style=""> </span>I wasn’t crazy!<span style=""> </span>I only saw 3 initially, but there were definitely 5 cubs!<span style=""> </span>I didn’t want them to fall out of the tree or get hurt.<span style=""> </span>We decided we needed to let them climb down on their own, which wasn’t going to happen with all of us outside making noise.<span style=""> </span>The guys put the mower away and we all went back in the house.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I grabbed a glass of wine and Scott and I went out on the enclosed porch.<span style=""> </span>Mama was down from the tree already waiting.<span style=""> </span>Shortly, one by one, we saw five little silhouettes scurry backward down the tree trunk and spring onto the ground next to mom.<span style=""> </span>You could hear their little claws scraping the tree bark the whole way down.<span style=""> </span>They were really cute – what I could see of them in the dark.<span style=""> </span>I wish I had noticed them more when I saw them up close, but my brain was elsewhere. Below is a diagram of the thought patterns of the human brain when encountering a mother bear with her cubs:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHF_HAO3yDEHxydd_GONRugQbyC7k-HT3J01oGQcIhssXj5zQJT6yblbGLZ4ZfpCSeqLpBvk-5BWGNjbXqG1qrFOIQ_SnePy3CJASDUNJCAEUTQ7n_MPs6elvn-SdEvkZQUAcICkFOI4sS/s1600/brain.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHF_HAO3yDEHxydd_GONRugQbyC7k-HT3J01oGQcIhssXj5zQJT6yblbGLZ4ZfpCSeqLpBvk-5BWGNjbXqG1qrFOIQ_SnePy3CJASDUNJCAEUTQ7n_MPs6elvn-SdEvkZQUAcICkFOI4sS/s200/brain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607457794164897266" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mom led the crew around the pond to the driveway, having to stop several time for the last 2 cubs who wanted to climb every tree on the way.<span style=""> </span>They finally hit the driveway and headed up the mountain into the park.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m really glad nobody was hurt and it was such an awesome thing to see.<span style=""> </span>I hope mom finds a quieter place to feed her cubs.<span style=""> </span>I still can’t help thinking what bear fur would be like to spin.<span style=""> </span>Not gonna happen.<span style=""> </span>Shearing would definitely piss off a bear!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-24709667481071127872011-03-04T06:57:00.000-08:002011-03-11T15:12:47.655-08:00Kate Fucking Spade<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaS0j2I6F7oXHlie9PezQvg3h-HYIcbKM6UeEExvMHfr5TlKlxgF4pc2w2Ej3gTcs4BXX2LRdLwYYmGIru9_BUZ2WrC3qkqr7lm28m0mzLKxXMQ7L1ULHCijo-u8EkfjGSk51D9KFX9Rxr/s1600/2-22+003.jpg"></a><div><div><div>When Scott drives me to the train station in the mornings we usually stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee if there's time before I have to get whisked away to the rat race. One morning we had to park a few doors away and walk up the block. We passed a consignment shop with a lot of handbags in the window, so we got our coffee and I stopped at the window to take a look on the way back to the car.<br /><br /><br /><div><div><div></div><div>And there it was. (Cue angels singing.) </div><br /><br /><div></div><div></div><div>A simple, little black bag with a red gingham lining and the label stitched on the front that said "<strong>Kate Fucking Spade, Bitches!</strong>" Actually it just said "<strong>Kate Spade</strong>", but I envisioned it the first way. I had always wanted a Kate Spade bag, but after going to the outlet store at Woodbury Commons where the cheapest one was $600 I figured it wasn't happening. Then I saw the price tag - $40! But WAIT! The $40 was crossed out with $25 written under it. A $25 Kate Fucking Spade bag? 0_o WTF was wrong with it? Did it smell? No, the store probably wouldn't have taken it if that was the case. Maybe the lining was torn - I could fix that! I had to see the bag for myself to decide if I should get it. I looked around but no store hours were posted. I googled the store and got their hours: Tuesday - Friday 11 - 7 and Saturday 10 - 4. Since the earliest I get off the train at night is after 7, it had to be Saturday.</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>So I told Scott "Let's get up early on Saturday. We'll go to breakfast and then go to the store so I can get that bag." He agreed. At least that <em>was</em> the plan.</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>So Saturday morning I get out of the shower and he's on the phone. At least he's showered and ready. I finished getting ready and he's still on the phone. Ok, I'll feed the birds. Start the car. Take out the garbage. Water the plants. Round up allt he lawn furniture that blew all over they yard the night before. I come back in with my coat on. Still on the phone he looks at me and holds up his hand saying "Five more minutes." Fifteen minutes later I'm standing in the doorway seething. Purse in one hand, keys in the other and wondering why his face isn't meting off with the glare I'm giving him, he finally wraps up the conversation and hangs up. GAH!</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>But we can't leave right away. Now we have to put the cover on the grill and do some other shit before we leave. FINALLY at 1:30 we're in the car heading down the driveway. I inform him that he can go to Dunkin Donuts first if he wants, but I'm going to the store to get that bag before I do anything else. He said no, he'd come to the store with me and then we'd go get breakfast together. Breakfast. At 2:00 in the afternoon. Better not get your fingers in the way because I am STARVING! And cranky.</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>And then the worst thing happened. We park the car. I get out and as I'm getting out I see two girls leaving the store AND ONE OF THEM HAS MY KATE FUCKING SPADE BAG!!!!!! I could feel the mercury quickly rise and explode out the top of my head. I spun around and I swear I could smell Scott's flesh burning as I glared a hole through him and screamed "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???!!!??" He knew I was beyond pissed. He was actually going to run down the block screaming "AAAAGGHHHH!!! IT BURNS!!! IT BURNS!!!!" to try to get me to laugh, but he thought better of it. Good thing too. It only would have escalated my rage and he would have become a puddle on the sidewalk.</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>I went in the store to take a look. Maybe they had another Kate Spade bag? Or maybe they had another bag I would like even better? No such luck. My bag was gone and there was nothing I could do about it except stew over the fact that if people actually only took five minutes when they said five minutes I would have that fucking bag right now.</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>Of course I took advantage of any oppotunity to bust balls about the situation. Like when we went to BJ's and realized we forgot to put an Ikea bag in the trunk to carry the stuff to the house when we got home. I said "It's okay - we can just put it in my <em>Kate Spade Bag.</em>" Glare.</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>He did redeem himself a bit later at the Ecko outlet store. There was a pair of boots I wanted to get, but I thought they didn't have any more. While I was trying on a pair of high tops he came over with the boots in the color I wanted. :D</div><br /><br /><div></div><div>About a week later I bought a Kate Spade bag on ebay for $30. He said "So will this shut you up?" I said "Probably not."</div></div></div></div></div></div>BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-42688594114941870032011-02-28T09:34:00.000-08:002011-03-01T09:26:02.856-08:00Happy New WTF!It's 2011 and time for a whole new batch of WTFery. Besides the usual stuff like change all the specs and when the factories have finally quit bitching, change them again, they decided to move our office. And not a move like when my old company moved to the building across the street to a bigger and better space. We moved from a nice neighborhood on 23rd street to 10th fucking avenue! For those not familiar with the city, imagine your office is in Disney World. It's pretty and bright and shiny and sparkly with lots to do and you never have to go very far because everything you need is right there. Transportation even drops you off right there! Then one day someone says "Hey, we're moving to a swamp in the everglades! There's not much there and you'll have to walk further and you might get eaten by alligators along the way, but maybe one day they'll be able to excavate enough of the swamp to put a foundation in and build a Starbucks!" Riiiiight.<br /><br />Okay, we're not in a swamp, but Jeebus Fuck it is, wow. I just can't think of what to say. It's just awful. Once you walk west of 8th avenue people start disappearing like coke and booze at Charlie Sheen's house. The next thing you know you're walking to work by yourself. Because nobody fucking works that far west unless they're going to a trade show at the Javits Center. And then they'e saying "Thank God I don't have to work over here <em>every day! This is faaarrrrrrr!"</em> GAH!<br /><br />Then there's the wind. Apparently from 9th avenue to 11th avenue is the vestibule to the city. It's that windy, noisy compartment you have to go through before you're safely in the airlock of the city. Dirt flies around in here as well. Lots of dirt. I think city workers are supposed to sweep the dirt into the Hudson, but they only sweep it as far as 10th avenue because they figure the boss will never come over here and look. And everything smells like pot and pee.<br /><br />It also seems the city does not have enough of a budget for DOT to fix any of the roads this far west either. 10th avenue is laden with giant potholes that will eat your car. Hopefully I will remember that they're there when I'm running to get the train at night.<br /><br />Anyway, I knew all this going in. Which is why I got all my bitching done early - before we moved. Which was answered with a barrage of replies like "Maybe it won't be that bad" - yes it is. And "At least you still have a job". True, but I still don't have to be happy about the move. By that same token, if someone is having marriage problems I should say "At least you have a husband." Cuz that'll make them feel better.<br /><br />So we finally got here (after the movers lost half of my stuff) and got settled in. NOW other people are bitching. Not saying I'm not anymore, but I'm not bitching as much as I was. We're here now and it's not going to change, but I wasn't surprised - I knew what to expect. I have found a few delis, and there's a Duane Reade across the street, but it's definitely NOT 23rd street. No more going to the park at lunch - there's not even a place to sit outside anywhere. But I can come in, do my work and go home.<br /><br />The non-believers are the ones who are bitching now. <em>Ooooooo, we didn't know it would be this BAAAADDDD!!!!</em><br /><em></em><br />See what happens when you don't listen to me?BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-87644595394284589252011-02-07T10:35:00.000-08:002011-02-18T10:17:16.414-08:00Vacation!<div><div><div><div><div>Finally! After 10 years we get to take a real get on a plane and fly the fuck outta here vacation!<br /></div><div><br />Got good prices on flights - not the best because I was still waiting on approval for the time off. :( </div><div> </div><div><br />Got great hotel rates - $38/night at the Luxor - woo hoo!<br /></div><div><br />It started on Wednesday - finished work and took the bus to Livingston so we could drop Hef off at Scott's sister's. It had started snowing sometime in the afternoon and was pretty bad by the time I got on the bus. The bus even got stuck at a few stops, but managed to get through. I finally got off the bus and walked through calf-deep snow to their house. We had dinner and left for home, leaving our little Ootums behind. :( It was our first time without the little guy.<br /></div><div> </div><div><div><div><div><div>So, the drive home, which should have taken 40 minutes, took 3 hours. Snowy and slippery and eeeccchhh!!! And the snowplows plowed us in as we were on the ramp to 280. We couldn't wait to leave for warmer weather.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Got up super early the next morning to find out our flight was canceled. Booked another flight out of JFK for later that evening. Slept a little more, packed up and headed to the airport.<br /><br /></div><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571021517222578002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrtRJuzodw0GK7E-eVuvYWhUcxmCxjUxNPocNEEKtuu7-jG6cTTn_WypOxpvRbupVBksyGlaxAix1c9z8EbPWUIoNRXhCUutPR3BtycoGOoDkSrrK4M5ngiG0JgaSMSpFonEcwmESh2xwJ/s200/102010+197.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571021506450448258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAh5Qz_-Tzst80vYUK1Jo5DfQ4dlkLr3iqAD9tNvCQMQCd5Uo_5X5fnCOLyCnciNYYwjjdZxcUL4Bpgdx0ygCxwQD3282e1DUb2__bHGtrryOl0z06Pd7wl5gNSftOl743SriXOUVxfKuz/s200/102010+207.jpg" border="0" /> <div></div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571021496974489602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfBbLiJRQqTAMin5ExMkqAPcbsOrJ76cCT57iMdlN0GT93BDNtuv02HYW2T-rItgvrwZaH5bDi6i6oYfg0laoGd4HVFhG8rNPODRkUNY0awyT7_Rjy4RBv3k6VsDmCbdGooXh3q93UpWfJ/s200/102010+204.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div></div><div>Flying out of Kennedy and Into LaGuardia - where should we park? We decided not to risk hitting traffic and head for JFK already. Got there 3 hours early - even had a snowplow there to clear out a space for us - got on the shuttle bus to the airtrain.<br /></div><div><br />And that's when it started. Waited with a bunch of people for about 20 minutes until the airtrain showed up. But we couldn't get on because it was an employees only break train or some shit. That train left and another one came in about 10 minutes and we got on. After about half an hour of closing and opening the doors, they decided the train was broken and told everyone to go downstairs and take the bus. It was a giant clusterfuck where nobody knew what the hell was going on. After about 8 buses left for not our terminal, people started coming down the escalator and asking us why we weren't taking the airtrain because it was running. Back upstairs, they told us to go back down and take the bus. After a bit more back and forth, we were finally on an airtrain moving toward the terminal. Got to check in 15 minutes before our flight so they could tell us we were too late. :( Rebooked on a Continental flight out of Newark and then sat down on the floor in the terminal and ate the sandiches we had made for the flight.<br /></div><div><br />We paid our $18 to get our car out of parking, then drove home. Got to bed at midnight so we could wake up at 3 AM and try again. Everything was cool - got to the airport super early, got the attendant outside to jump the HUGE inside line and check our bags for us, took off our shoes, went through the metal detector and off to the gate. :D Only to find out our flight was delayed TWO MORE HOURS! :( We could have slept more. So we hung out, checked out some shops, charged our phones, etc. before going to the gate. We watched them de-ice the plane as we were waiting to board, then watched more de-icing after we were on the runway. It started snowing and I was thinking "Come on! Let's get outta here before we get stuck again!" But we finally took off for Vegas.</div></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>A long flight and two bad movies later we were in McCarren airport looking for my dad at the baggage claim area. I hadn't seen him in a while, so I was just looking for a big bald guy in a bright orange shirt. Scott saw him first. We got the bags and enjoyed the scenery on the 2 hour ride to Dad's house.</div></div><div> </div><div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>It was nice to change into warm weather clothes! We went to pick up Grandmother and got a tour of her house, which had an interesing game room off of the living room with a Harley Davidson style pool table and a jacuzzi. 0_o Then we went out to a great steak place for dinner and great margaritas!</div><div> </div><div><br /> </div><div></div><div>On Saturday we went to Oatman - a little old mining town where Clark Gable spent his honeymoon. There were lots of shops, staged gunfights and donkeys roaming the streets. Very cute!</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575074086873119890" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPZ94nSybSgOgD8p9dJJSkQ6Ou8vr-2FnhQ7NYA60le3X5h_XMrw7DHvAqS_GSTBXtRwKbqoVTJzeRPhCvTP3lxR5knpZkqu2ozisXOHHkVLg7SvXTuK3q6mrDRXHbbhHTOvzJ__W1LRrC/s200/102010+219.jpg" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575074095129043090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9_7BpC74D9YQPfpCWunJMjURoEr9Yj72UgJQUHnvZU1aFNcI5nTu8LxYa8xi9AK1FyLYypK5p61q2M-tgNqnMjd48YG9WUQLdpwurrMQnc1PnrgzUTqBEG72qaUWLCP0Lf4t6vwoqw_b/s200/102010+225.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575074104830110402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3M0Ij527iojGnjw6zwCIaHmDLcY1rrIx8_66kmkqQXHFObP-JjgBL81uWffNdeggBrHkWboxaV8h3wghtpg_HnkFRC0_dmye1vkmBJxfGhBamPiYl8UXw2BAgoqlUOy35EoG_0_ICpw2/s200/102010+228.jpg" border="0" /></div></div></div><div><br /><br />We went back to Dad's and sat out on the roof for a little while before going out to dinner at a nice place next to London Bridge.</div><br /><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575080402653486066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vxMHUsdXeFosIeGDpZbCwR2DD_2-qATJ0rKCBDxtBqpvuUAzf5FkX936BkjMlo9roaMM0v5ncAVS01oU7wMSCGaREPNhQz-OE23-hOCRvn3kFjl7QcjUpq0Gv2yfy_sF8uu0V2AyDuPP/s200/102010+234.jpg" border="0" /></p></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575086110144088834" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjER_Rmrwq1DOoiGVuyieMbYxyimtH1BLMcjTDyJ9Ut3bQgMdf03krFjvTbBpxK7XrVVWGT7eE44186TAMeFGKYHRR-x5BHUM1Tmla-z2dE6Tzvw8OXN5g0NA5I17gPJgFnJfLEieOBvNwQ/s200/102010+239.jpg" border="0" /></div><div> </div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575086114460824002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKcnXexdm8Ie2scYH60DprZE4LjodPI08c81xE53iD4KZ0JIfjDTbQMnNvsCB3VTSuyFdjHo8n9HgtrLlWIYaJBPPlMoY4YoItrgpqn8QpjaFqLaIcFEymc2FF4IdFG96M_EeCqllYA6MF/s200/102010+242.jpg" border="0" /></div><div> </div><div>Pepita:</div><div> </div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575086118656024914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXFRO7OVhyphenhyphenEaPTShH9Pg8IemgNWvRoOtMZNtK-zcDl62Dp698ObDzZjO7ffBfvGoSMbNTx11170nl8YDUgy_k7ezz-E4-2Yy3rZfLPxoUbnTpAevcNQsFJX11lVmQftUoOZKsZHiMljVJ1/s200/102010+243.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p></p><p></p><p>The next day we were off to Vegas for a few days. When we got to the hotel people grabbed us right at the door and offered us free show tickets. While I was looking over the list, Scott figured out what it was and said we weren't going to be in town that long, so no thanks. It was a timeshare thing. So we brought our stuff up to the room and walked around a bit before stuffing ourselves at the buffet.</p><p> </p><p>On Monday we got all day bus passes so we could go up and down the strip and see stuff. We went all the way to the north end to the Stratosphere where they had this ride on the roof that shot you over the edge and left you hanging. No. Thanks. We then worked our way south, stopping at Bonanza, the forum shops and M shops before taking the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel.</p><p> </p><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575086125356578242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimkehXt647NC2yEBJ09IecrjmVwZOj5oHq9jx4k-iehafGNxzEmpqb8XuzK75Hr7frKEp5yufgeYJc_Sq2xqlnOrWfEMYldBDcs7kvgo-dVGZWu2JgaMN-WHTQC0BNjMru6grUOK69EZpJ/s200/102010+254.jpg" border="0" /><br />Then we went to see the fountains at the Bellagio:</div><div><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575086125962935634" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIsCujJMciJnSXp2TVhSe3PF2IcSw1rYsRY64OcA2mPLeJdWtmxk-QGdJGpSbu6OdYDkK7MgGzaAtuns0d-b_TpBOZ6f57SMAHYofBN8n8dK1rJuAb04cuNltjsg1yyvHHJq9-eqdGDPFv/s200/102010+261.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p>After that, we went to dinner at the Excalibur, which was less spectacular than I remembered. While we were having dinner, I checked on our flight home for the next morning - it was canceled. :D When we left, we went straight to those timeshare people and signed up to sit through their schpiel the next morning so we could get free tickets to see Criss Angel - OMG!</p><p> </p><p>I never sat through a timeshare presentation before. It was long, but not that bad. And at least they gave us good coffee and food. My favorite part was how the price started at $41,990, then they kept cutting it in half. It was $9,900 when we finally shook the sales guy's hand and said goodbye. We had to stop to fill out paperwork for our tickets, when another guy cut the price in half again. 0_o When we finally got on the shuttle bus with our tickets I asked if someone was going to come on the bus and try to get us to sign for $2450.</p><p> </p><p>We went back to the hotel, did some more touring and went to see the show. Unfortunately, the timeshare only buys tickets in the last row. Fortunately, Scott was able to schmooz the usher to get us into the $150 seats up front. :D The show was AWESOME!! I have no idea how he does any of the stuff he does.</p><p> </p><p>Afterward, we tried to go on the rollercoaster at New York New York, but it was closed because the weather got unusually cold. So we walked a bit, and I decided since it's Vegas I couldn't leave without playing a couple games. Neither one of us gambles, but I think the video games can be fun. So I put a dollar in the Wheel of Fortune game - nothing. Another dollar - nothing. Then Scott suggested why not pull the lever instead of using the push button. So I tried it and won $25! Played a few more games - video poker and blackjack, more slots, etc. Went up, went down - ended up cashing out around $23.</p><p> </p><p>We got into Newark around 7 pm - broke ALL my nails trying to get our bags (apparently TSA does not care if you walk around the airport with a bloody hand, but they do care if you try to bring a bottle of water through their security check), sent Scott to get the car and later realized I had the ticket for parking in my purse. We went to Linda & Paul's to pick up Hef, who we were told we were not getting back. He had a great time, but was happy to see us. He hated the car ride, but was so happy when we got home.</p><p> </p><p>So all in all it was challenging but fun. Plus now we know what NOT to do if you're flying when it snows is rely on the stupid Airtrain!</p></div></div></div></div>BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-28761740353339431882011-01-25T10:07:00.001-08:002011-01-25T10:24:00.762-08:00Moving to the GhettoWell fuck me. We just got an email saying we're moving. Which sucks royal ass. This is a great building in a great neighborhood - nice and residential with upscale shops and restaurants. I'm close to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, School Products, Madison Square Park, Cosi, Argo Tea, Live Bait, Garden of Eden - the list goes on. And the subway stop is right on my corner - I don't even have to cross the street!<br /><br />And what's in our new neighborhood? NOTHING! And the closest subway is a good 15-20 minute walk.<br /><br />OH GREAT!!! I just remembered that I will no longer be able to visit the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck at lunch! GRRRRRRR!!!!!<br /><br />I hope at least we all get raises for this asshattery. But I'm not holding my breath.<br /><br />And the next person who tells me "At least you have a job" is going to the hospital with my foot stuck in their ass.BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-59474831768315089892011-01-12T16:02:00.000-08:002011-01-12T16:23:13.498-08:00Why 2010 can go eat a bag of dicks<div><br /><br /><div>Don't get me wrong- 2010 wasn't all bad. It just managed to get most of its punches and ninja kicks in in December.</div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>The first punch: early in December I was all excited about the Spin City Holiday Party coming up mid-month. I get a call from the venue that they have a $600 minimum for private parties during the holidays - this is our fourth holiday party there and this is the first I'm hearing of this. After much complaining, I got them to waive the minimum, but it really destroyed my enthusiasm for the event. We actually did end up meeting the minimum, but I feel like they were trying to pull something over on us.</div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>Then came a series of punches and kicks regarding my grandfather. He had part of his foot removed due to circulation problems in his legs. Then they decided he needed to have the whole leg removed from the knee down. When they removed the leg, there were all these clots that released and went up to his brain causing a stroke. We thought he was doing better, but I got a call from my Dad the day before my birthday that he passed away the night before. I'm glad I remember him as I do and not suffering in some hospital toward the end. But I wish I had taken the time to go out and visit, have dinner with him and chat about stuff. Now it's too late and I feel awful.</div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561457058224073746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwYB9b2qbVEtQTmaqEFf8SFFgj3etIoDA-Z4DjSSs5-b8CT30ILDDTY611dD5DDtFAMUSqxh2317_jQQu8xwvJYhdc3ordBnNLPu5psLyGIy4mXw67OlJ9BSHxM4n8hDSwi7NX4VJCctEc/s200/102010+001.jpg" border="0" /></div></div><br /><p></p><br /><p>Got kicked again when I got sick for my birthday, so we didn't do anything. </p><br /><p>Punched again on Christmas Eve when Scott woke up and told me he was too sick to go to my mom's and I shuold go by myself. He was erally sick, and I didn't want to force him to go, but I didn't want to spend Christmas without him. We ended up going out Christmas day and coming back that night. Missed chruch with my mom and dinner at Emeril's on Christmas Eve though.</p><br /><p>The TKO came the following week, when my beautiful Nilla passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I cried nonstop for days until I was so sickI couldn't get out of bed all New Year's weekend. I miss my little girl - it's not fair she was taken from us so soon.</p><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561459029588352866" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILPy3tdFRgKBatE3IVEedTmLM9zbHuQEA2yfaUv3Op4AYVsh7W1TiPU-O2uW83h0ZS2ETB0dawcpO1dDFFiDfzjiNH4SDXLSz-0U2DT2KR11VBzvGEykziZ19VnsTaGPikz1EnvQ-LBzX/s200/4.5.10fit+134.jpg" border="0" /></p><br /><p> </p><p>So 2010 can suck it. Good riddance. 2011, you better not let me down!</p>BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-92067271225379588022010-12-22T08:02:00.000-08:002010-12-22T10:20:59.283-08:00Back from Slackerdom - Part...what number are we up to? - Spin CItyI love my Spin City meetup group! One of my favorite things I do every week is get together with them. We did a lot this year - we grew to over 200 members and had some of our biggest meetups ever!<br /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Meetup at Trump Tower:<br /></div><br /><div><div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553557725750216610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhWIqV_D78-SzIlzdETArfleuGJZyjjaW0X4eOvRWtOeY049Zp2xlQgoPy2p-eRenksbqJhse0uLc2Ny5qFMJE8yQOlwGxWcN3_q4m6nPz8Yjk_NsFjxtMoTQ0DzaeG6y02QQYB2j-EMZ/s200/4.5.10fit+113.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br />The Shake Shack:<br /><br /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553557731623076162" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbW8QdXIpp5XLHB5Bi_AR-Daf1vY3N-o87vvyiF_4dT-ZGDmsUNJjmLwFmFkGkzLrEjTBp7IaFpAkVtcoH3wrqsqLZFCexe_dbecBqgfuz9iz-3GldegOoi9LaZhUOn6Cs3AppaPrdOjZM/s200/6-21-10+049.jpg" border="0" /></div></div><br /><br /><br /><div>The Rabbit Hole:<br /><br /></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16u1e29BwPNg734o4Mepv5C9h84pIGEb4WCwZJ6fs2E1CMr_-sI807SsIPuF5iomF-g-BOC3_w9WDePqFB1gFeEgvh7pRN5LdnCxEqRFtdaMJ61rRb8dDqwVUx0SoQWJ6pnaqsIfqjyXH/s1600/4.5.10fit+127.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553557710954815458" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16u1e29BwPNg734o4Mepv5C9h84pIGEb4WCwZJ6fs2E1CMr_-sI807SsIPuF5iomF-g-BOC3_w9WDePqFB1gFeEgvh7pRN5LdnCxEqRFtdaMJ61rRb8dDqwVUx0SoQWJ6pnaqsIfqjyXH/s200/4.5.10fit+127.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div><br /><div>Rhinebeck: - after none of us winning anything last year except for some snarky comments this year we cleaned UP!! Four 1st place, Two 2nd place, One 3rd, 4th and 6th. Yay!<br /><br /><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553557749679304722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2foiE8reuW3mgoy6tdE1nNUJPbFCCrj5UNMmBkGJEX3nyUUlLMOXWlpSDl6Qda-1D7wVFyv8-esBb6lMe43JkSvoC7YVAtgpPBuPRsodQukiXrQ6UNjjh6XrzpDx2qIQqrtBucnRrWdsV/s200/101810+109.jpg" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553557742269438418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xNoeb4Kc-_Vc73nR8f4UfhV9WOrCqXYUM0u76eEted2nTFL2-q5SQDTpa0U6tmrT7oAFR7-Of0iQ90nHR2aOUkzP7DREAW8bOZbFxH7qkLLukMRIvFl7YMq751QqNEstZnSn3AYuape5/s200/101810+104.jpg" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553560161176682674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUZ58XPvivmlkaS2yU26fhyphenhyphenHCtHrzlBUoSEit1YK_EEGrgwS37CxrtrBFF-iQxoH_aZM9X360tJN-TtKt2YtEjYZNiyeELBj0VcOHQ3duNSITtckodXHs8QN6YFb2hS-1YVIY5ENOLcew/s200/101810+124.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553560140445015746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkWxAX4hxL9f62JqQLqAGE8SMiGd5jSw7YjEUlw-lxnKQA-y5zQmEwNsnnuBfN9rZTrM_dKdefNT4Ohx36eoQiYS9KPkfobfLiA475hm6lHiZ5nA1DJjSL521rJDS2NP5OyHElQPSkfJIB/s200/101810+114.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553560154531684482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-YZUEmLUyfQM3OnIAwOyK8oDvDzC2CwPZCcqxB3MQ86q8FOSwTSZbm1-UZWbi5P_Y1tD026TQYR-5mVn9iyOuXqofvD2yIoHvikpt2xXMd2DQNLupR-Tbmqmo2pQiJr986ZifQaJsjJJ/s200/102010+013.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553560131312844002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_-ZfmT75gsfcgWmO4R1ZKWIbTaqDXzFVUckeC92-ljkXnPaoLL0PniOyU3p5r-d9dU5ki8C9cO0G3VF2tpkneLL4OFrbgeEIRwgqMFxWfbAuIs5xUPAhWRLM8o8Ji2cOzGdJl4fhOxWu/s200/101810+108.jpg" border="0" /> </div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Our first meetup at Highline Park: which got us a write-up in the New York Times!<br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553560162701338530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 133px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6JnFaMgSv1VTTHKH8FufvcEdLrAFf4GV-lFX2WWfchyphenhyphen7Bx29UqmxdjuP67g7qnMBInMqe1vHcCJVQFTopS2C0vM1o20budHn6eMBOI8i35bmwQuC0cRlxr9FfCt_HG3gHDWdedzuj6yJs/s200/2010727Nocturnalsit-custom3.jpg" border="0" /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br /><div></div><div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553571908406286706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 133px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilGHVNDCt44AT4KYa0thvQTjMcIPfewuGQ16OrX7U_GyA-dpxiTIkN5OyXkagvTlGrrr9uqeqjrFcHZxLSdBaYSFi2EJIsFDuA38lQect1s1TsJY6FHvxDDqsM4hnrLkIQgGfQiy-zRv2x/s200/2010727Nocturnalsit-custom1.jpg" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553565625612114098" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzdiR26zidr0qX72JstuAdzmVdAxkuehU8TMpK0k4QJjrMvD80gIqBhtVUto36M4To22S5LeobjOa8bgbF0McMA7vVWzIRHz5ZnYbP__grJ2OX6uoV6BT4TuMnRQN9wwNtiKOVKSLzzKX/s200/6-21-10+020.jpg" border="0" /></div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>World Wide Spin in Public Day at Riverside Park: Our first event for which we had to get a permit!</div><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553565637593695250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP0pz1lUaG6fpM-cu8rN1y3ugmqazdIOO-IVtlNj7bnYPOY4UEqNPjBF9sxCGd0wXnwP_SU-5iQ9HyP73Um-tSnXo4_2nLJvevJxAwFsSZyrtFpzapgD_zjh-KcKRvxKzyNHEl3hqnajP3/s200/8-16-10+004.jpg" border="0" /></div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553565640563798274" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2khcSo1xX-AVgckw77np1kr_CsF_QLk7cC4H-mqirAg-ynJF5jkf5uv-KfcwAGEULcLO4uf1s7wWc_DZuCWxTxkH6VrcCb9r8E0kJWr-GiuL8bgkP33IBPvWZx3sZ4_FghzhQ2rue_TZ/s200/8-16-10+003.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553565649913399682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJZdSHfH5jv0EeiIDfulRa0CYvQXobFrLvK3OnLwn1_Y5T0xNtaMB2Ah3dnAgfl6DZm07d97JEDh9VvbyCwvT49UB5O6FWVxvFhnAx_NzjuXmPhQwj-F_YMp_e6NTmyIXIlpfI85OjThfO/s200/8-16-10+024.jpg" border="0" /> </div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Fibre Fallout: not our event, but a lot of us attended:</div><br /><div></div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553568612176965378" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgij6nZTxkTDpbdpK0btkpx10x5gT1bvMw2pNrkDWrrTqQ2lHW15XR5H3SW5M-a8uZBiuh6CGl2K-g2EE3IaxRx7ZJp9aM6tSu9QNmZAE5Px7UFj4kU5U6H8w-1ZNcRgZnc9fqxvpD5YxEu/s200/8-16-10+074.jpg" border="0" /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553568615023788514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_AiZwtd9aHUPW1mFZzPnRovpzTB04IhJ_XOfO_SR_Z2vfPKsgBcMq-bJRAi4yWZVg3k27EQnBWEfSI_qVhfnO7MO4-biy92Blm_dqfwEz6d3pHp3TlEFsbIsUeRvTk38ttAkBUQktzxjh/s200/8-16-10+039.jpg" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553568624372948274" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpylZKTfEpnCUcInGWY8ElKo_n0sBCkduvH1TLMAz97DjjU1C8Ym9wE0BMP0U8HQs8Wr5n65keGillbV1tLHMPphvHteYePj5XiJ0C0QNZRM4FTM20njlnqlGrFpDxZOuvA_179djgitwc/s200/8-16-10+072.jpg" border="0" /></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>And our Holiday Party - our largest event ever!<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553568627032273858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWiCszoprd7ip3RjePQrob6gL9IWHBKQdx__b45d01Dda_uy5E336OEOLH9aTCMEpas9KtWlNczFxox9PA7XUPfrc3nGm2y4pgMGiZ0FcSVIL2UUiQI9HResaNsaHaaWzdq9EeXGV6Pc1H/s200/102010+013.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><br /><p></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553568642687397794" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvE_BQAoATYRZugVaPVa_G5uJxIp0f-S33RnXUJC4N48YclzKNShZbjmFciqy6BSyGNOO5vc74yVQU77_192UyEx876yywAAqP-osfTEDI_EKA60-FcIeEpg3SPC0E6ihyphenhyphenQ58gSK-eURS/s200/102010+022.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><p></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5242559520182014756.post-66115685457195112292010-11-19T14:25:00.000-08:002010-11-19T14:34:10.578-08:00Back from Slackerdom Part 4 - The HikeEvery time we drive into our driveway during daylight we have this great view of a clearing high up on the mountain. After many times of seeing this and saying "Wouldn't it be fun to hike up there?" we did. We packed up some wine and cheese and pepperoni, some water, and a rope of course and went up. It took most of a November afternoon, but the view was phenomenal.<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541392336690801346" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaX0xokqycCIrxtSYcf1MMzCaYdQ35l1qFFaRVo5etbJApgRYAhdCIhgmCbawsDWe-Yy-cqqns_IErbEz6mbZvVwMG5njvtMRUi-ekYiHAuHrD0UirPwNK71XfZ_a_XhOdt9_r7yXv95F/s200/4.5.10fit+030.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541392324188555378" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb4kjsWpFePGg_YpNhmovwctEcThi4bx9dY9GnPzuI1r40h6-T9dnDZOhNONcC0eTPaLD5RCptNM-XJBjlEK8TUBEpzXlbdhk0nNlyGCbiKhmyMoG46aZqAL7fzrA_rke4Yo8BcMHVsKcj/s200/4.5.10fit+027.jpg" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541392315383805538" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ryi-_vcN3_oN8cK5vkrchuhS7yP-I2FncvrfWLDva7eiqls4c984474e0xIF8J5kvbWi2Y5G6-ygGmH6Vzx-arn0kTN4upDklMzxrVK8kRPlpjpLW-1_JsslzPsKAuP4xBQozlxHyX8y/s200/4.5.10fit+029.jpg" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541392308145854770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimceejW4_xDGzORMK9joM5LqSGjirBGd1hsa3O-bdFLJHEX0n0h92kHcvwfkvt7TNLNzb_dCSvMz1wChuoak034t4SRwnxPaXt47Znowcjj_eBDxAoP_2VYxkOF_L-Q-kqnYxE5P5-sWlA/s200/4.5.10fit+032.jpg" border="0" />BunnyMomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14193419205219916659noreply@blogger.com0