Woolly Mutts

I heart Monday/ say my name.

I love Monday.  Love, love, love Monday.  Especially rainy Mondays like today.  You all know that I adore my husband and all of his amazingness, but one day with the house all to myself is a very good thing.  He works from home 3 days a week and I work away from home 3 days a week and it all works out just perfectly.  Ah, but Monday is all mine and I spend all day soaking up the alone.  It makes me a nicer person.

On this particular Monday I am in need of your assistance; AH and I need grandparent names.  Lucky little baby Cambria has three sets of fantastic, loving grandparents and I would like designated names that set this particular set apart.   I suggested "Her Supreme Highness Hippie Green Grandma", but that might be a little bit too much to remember. :-)   So, what I would love is for you to comment here and tell me what names you called your grandparents, or what your grandchildren call you.  Maybe it's a family or cultural name....or maybe just something cute the child made up....I want to hear them all.  I was in favor of just letting Cambria decide, but apparently it's a better idea to decide first and then have Mom and Dad refer to us that way.  Makes sense. 

Thanks for your input, and have a fantastic, peaceful Monday.

No, no bad dog!

This is Cooper and he is a bad dog.  For those unfamiliar, Cooper is the oldest and largest of the Muttville Mutts weighing in at about 150, give or take a few.  He is not generally a bad dog.  To put it in kind terms, he lacks the imagination and motivation needed to pull off any seriously bad behavior. (dumb as dirt)  The most annoying things he does is block any and all floor space (making walking through the house a slightly more aerobic activity) and drool.  The drooling can be a little disgusting, but he is half St. Bernard and the loose lips come with the breed.  We love him anyway.  He is generally perfectly happy to let Samten, the smaller and wiser of the Mutts, do most of the dirty work.

There are only two things that can cause Cooper to rise from his sedentary life and pretty much lose his mind; coyotes and kids on skateboards.  Luckily, we don't see too many coyotes, but our neighborhood is heavily populated with kids on skateboards.  The Mutts are kept within their yard boundaries by means of an invisible fence.  They wear collars that warn them with a beep when are are near the boundary, and a little electrical buzz when they actually cross it.  Kids on bikes and skateboards go by multiple times a day and Cooper may give a half hearted attempt at chase, but stays in his yard. Trying to reward good behavior, over the last year we have been letting the dogs run without the collars. Yeah, my mistake.

Yesterday AH has gone on a food run and Cooper is outside waiting for his return.  I am sitting at this very computer with a good view of the front yard and Cooper.  I hear the sound of skateboard wheels, Cooper's deep WOOF and off he goes, right out into the street after the kid on the skateboard.  I run out the door yelling his name and watch as he chases this kid (who is now moving at speeds that I was not aware a skateboard was capable of) for a block or two.  Lucky for all of us Cooper is great at a sprint, but not so much for the long haul.  He got tired and happily came home.  And when I say happy, I mean he was SO happy it was just ridiculous.  He could have cared less that he was in serious trouble.  Samten, on the other hand, who had stayed in his yard like a good dog, was hiding under the table with his eyes covered while I scolded Cooper.

The good news: the new dog food that we have recently switched them to (Blue) is clearly working to make Cooper stronger and free of the hip pain he had been suffering from.

Bad news?: the collars are back on both dogs.  Samten is not amused.

Preparation

Just as there was no way that I could truly prepare my daughter for the birth experience, there was no preparing me for the rush of instant love I felt when I saw my granddaughter.  To be honest,  so soon after losing my mother I wasn't truly ready to fall in love with another person, but there are some things completely beyond control and this is surely one of them.  I am simply intoxicated by her.

There is something almost sacred about seeing your daughter become a mother.  A communion of spirit that connects in that exclusively feminine way.  She will understand now, things that no other experience could enlighten.  And she is a beautiful mother.  No fear or hesitation, just nurturing love amazing to watch.  

What a joy being a grandparent is.  All the love and fun and little of the responsibility.  Life is full of wondrous gifts if you wait long enough and keep you eyes and heart open.

Almost one day old.

Almost 24 hours hold and already she has changed.  Her little cone head had rounded and her eyes are less puffy.  I think she looks an awful lot like her Daddy, though she has her mother's stick straight hair and plenty of it.  I think perhaps she also has her mother's photogenic nature because she was more than willing to lay there, all wide eyed, while Tom took a few pics.

All day at work I could hardly wait until I could get up there and hold her again, but alas, that will have to wait a while longer.  She is having some issues with latching on, and until she does the nursing specialist is suggesting that no one but Mommy and Daddy hold her.  Bummer.  There will be plenty of time for holding and rocking and reading and singing in the days to come.

After the excitement of her birth I found that I could not sleep last night.  At 2:30am I was wide awake watching Dancing with the Stars.  Tonight, at 7:50pm I am ready for pajamas and a soft bed.  Being a Grandma is exhausting. :-)

The circle of love grows.

 

 

Cambria Joy Lisitza, born October 19, 2009 at 8:45 (or there abouts...I don't really remember exactly what time)pm.  6 lbs 15 oz, 18 inches long.  Perfect in every way.  I was privileged enough to be present at her birth, along with her Daddy and Auntie Grace. 

Looks like today is baby day!

As of 8:00 am Kysa's water broke and they are in hospital waiting.  I think it might be a LONG wait.   Hope I'm wrong.  I'll keep you posted!

Gonna be a Grandma!!!!!

Random

I'm starting to feel a little guilty about how I have been neglecting this little blog.  My brain has been going in so many directions lately that I find that I have a hard time sitting here and making the words flow together.  A few random things....

 

*These two lovely people are still awaiting the birth of baby Cambria.  If she hasn't been born by Monday the 26th they will induce her.  Kysa is no longer working and that is making life in late pregnancy much easier.  We just keep waiting for that phone call. :-)

*I am still completely in love with my job.  It is much more physical than I expected (which is in no way a bad thing) so after a full day of on my feet and going up and down stairs to the store room I'm pretty used up.....still it's so great to be there.  Monday, which is generally my day off, I'm meeting my boss and the jewelry supplier at the store to do the buying for the holiday season.  Looking forward to seeing all the pretty things.

*Mother may be gone, but the red tape continues to wrap me up in knots.  Spent time at the Social Security office with no success at verifying her SS number.  There has been a great deal of signing and notarizing and mailing things certified.  Do your kids a huge favor and have all your financial ducks in a row before you pass.  Something as simple as not changing a beneficiary from my deceased father to me, and a typo in her SS# is causing me no end of grief.  Really looking forward to the day when I actually miss her, as opposed to being frustrated.

*Spending lots of time today putting the yard to bed for the winter and covering the hole that will be the pond next year (please let that be true).  The fish are in a large tank in the basement and I tell them regularly that they are on winter vacation in the Bahamas.  Good thing they have no sense of time. :-)

*Working my way slowly through An Echo in the Bone....the latest in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  As with all of her books, it is a wonderful read.

*Is anyone else watching Stargate: Universe?  What do you think?

Brand new week.

And....we are home.  It was a long drive back here, but it is always good to be home.  Each time we visit Minnesota I renew my vow to play the lottery, cause that is the only way enough money will  come our way to make Grand Marais our second home.  I would not want to move so far away from the kids and friends here, but I would sure love to have a place we could bring them all to so we could enjoy it together...and then come back to this home.

After vacation reality is some times hard to step back into.  I would love nothing more than to sit in this quiet house, knit, maybe kill a few zombies, and let the time go by lightly.  Instead, I have promised my boss that I would meet her in Janesville to buy jewelry for the store, and then I have errands to run.  I thought I had to go to the bank and Social Security office today(apparently my mother gave her broker the wrong social security number when she set up the account and now that number and the number on her death certificate do not match, so I must to verify the number before funds will be released... SO much fun) but, it is Columbus Day, so those things will have to wait until Thursday.  

I do not listen much to the news, nor do I read the newspaper.  If it isn't reported on NPR or The Daily Show, I probably don't know it's happening.  I find that I can sleep better this way.  The latest ridiculousness over President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is the perfect example of why I choose to live this way.  It keeps me from wanting to run screaming in the streets.  That anyone can find contention in a prize honoring peaceful efforts makes me worry for the human race. Perhaps fear really is the biggest obstacle to peace.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Late in the day, yesterday, we hiked out to the end of Artists Points, made some calculations on wind direction and sent mother's ashes to be accepted by the big lake.  It was cold and drizzling and baggies seemed a little inappropriate, but you make do, right?  The waves broke hard against the rocks and carried the ashes away just as I had hoped they would.  Goodbye, Mother.  I hope we did right by you.

Today we pack up and head back down to Duluth for a night before heading home on Friday. 

What is a vacation without a stop at a yarn store?

Nowhere near as good as it could be, that's what.  When we first began coming to Grand Marais there was a little yarn store on a major street that had a small, but diverse stock of yarn.  (Oh, I must tell you right now that yarn in Minnesota is NOT TAXED!  It's considered clothing, which is also not taxed.  Another gold star for MN.) We went there a couple of times, but I usually made sure to stop in Duluth first since they have a huge selection. Then, last year, I discovered "That Little Red House".  There is no website, which is a shame cause I'd love to give you access to her, but there it is.  TLRH is on 5th ave just a block off of Highway 61.  If it isn't pouring rain, it's a nice walk from our hotel.

At this point let us discuss what is the most important thing about a yarn store; atmosphere or stock of yarn?  In an ideal world, one store with both an amazing stock of fiber and a great atmosphere would be common place, but it has been my experience that the two don't often happen at the same time.  TLRH isn't ratty or ugly.  What it is, is a living room, kitchen and 2 bedrooms FULL of yarn.  Some of it is carefully displayed and lots of it is in the bags it arrived in piled along the wall.  At first this sort of scared me, but after taking a closer look, there are multiple skeins of absolutely everything.  Enough to make absolutely whatever you could possibly want to make, and in a little town a couple of hours from another yarn supplier, that is a good thing.

TLRH is run by a lovely woman who knows exactly what she has in stock and can put her hands on it immediately.  She has an impressive collection of Mountain Colors, Cascade, Berroco, Brown Sheep, Debbis Bliss, Classic Elite, Dream in Color, Noro, sock yarn of every make and color....it goes on and on.  Having worked in a yarn store, I have a little clue of how much money she has invested in this store and it is not a small amount.  She began the store with her business man husband who promptly bailed on her, leaving to run the store alone, and I think she's doing a pretty great job.  I went in with a list of projects and she had what I wanted in large quantities.  She and AH chatted while I looked at colors....honestly it was just a lovely experience.  When we come here again I will be, again, prepared with a wish list and stock up on fabulous, no tax yarn.

So, what did I buy?

 

This is the stash from visit #1.  Classic Elite Ariosa to make the cover hat on Jared Flood's "Made in Brooklyn" which, in my haste here, I cannot find a link for.  Classic Elite Princess to make the mittens in the same book.  Berroco Ultra Alpaca to make the Noemi scarf from Norah Gaughan Collection 1 book. My impulse buy was the fabulous purple Sundae out of which I will make the Danielle Cowl from the Sundae Berroco book, which the wonderful typepad has decided I cannot link to.  Apologies.  After casting on Noemi I fell so in love with the Alpaca Ultra that I went back for more in a beautiful periwinkle color to make the Woodland Shawl and two skeins of Ultra Alpaca Light to make Ishbel.  I am most pleased with my purchases.  The Danielle Cowl is about a third of the way done, a fast, bulky knit, and Noemi, a little more challenging, but with chart work that I adore, is coming along well.  Being sick on vacation has some advantages. :-)