Past, Present, Future: My life in three acts

The past is on my mind today as I watch the news leading up to the 25th anniversary of the eruption of Mt.St.Helens. I'd gone to church with my friend Leslie's family and we could see the plume of ash as we drove home. We lived outside Battle Ground at the time and a short trek through the woods behind our home brought us to the edge of a neighboring field where we could watch the dark grey clouds billow over the mountain.

I remember wearing a mask over my nose and mouth to walk down to catch the school bus, the ash that built up on the cars and the concerns about what the ash might do to the engines. When the Toutle River highway opened up again, we drove down it and saw the twisted wreckage of bridges, buried cars and houses and wondered at the destructive force of nature.

Now when she belches smoke, I can see it from the 3rd floor of my office building in Gresham. I can see it rise over Prune Hill in Camas and reassure my colleagues who weren't here 25 years ago, that nope, that was nowhere near as big as 1980. And no, Mt.St.Helens isn't the one to worry about. If we take a look to the right, there's Mt. Hood a heckuva lot closer to us. It's only 26 miles from work to the foothills! Focus, people!

Anyhoo, in my present, I've finally completed the KnitPicks blanket.

I don't know what book the pattern came out of but their Crayon yarn is wonderful. While I got annoyed with my apparent inability to follow a pattern correctly the first 2 times, I was still enjoying the yarn by the end. I enjoyed the project enough to ask for the blanket back once they've finished taking pictures for their upcoming catalog. Nice people, good yarn. Can't wait for the next project in June.

And my knitting future? It's Dulaan, baby! (just had a flashback to Austin Powers and his attack on Basil's mother "that's not a woman, it's a man, baby!")

So far this week, I've completed 2 of Norma's pinwheel hats in Encore and Wool-Ease and I've got another headed to the needles. I've also got some bulky yarn I'll use for the pattern from the Harlot.

A brief break to FINALLY finish Mom's Berry Freeze vest today and then back to the charity knitting.

All the above is little stuff. Here's my past, present and future:


Happy Anniversary, honey. Here's to another 7 years.

Go Me!

I am my own cheerleader.

Well, not really. I'm more dance team or pep band than cheerleader. Although, I'll cop to watching cheer competitions on ESPN (oooh, they dropped her! THAT's gonna leave a mark)

Anyhoo, I weighed in yesterday and I'm down again. Yee haw! I'm now at 190 and have dropped 7.6 lbs over 3 weeks. Makes me feel better since I didn't feel like I'd done well staying on plan. But apparently 3rd time's a charm and it's starting to sink in.

If I keep going at this rate, I'll reach my 10% goal by, hmmm, today's the 5th, my goal is 19, add my age, subtract the number of times I've done WW and divide the pie to share and let's see, the 2nd week of June? That would beat my time goal of end of July to lose 20 lbs.

Not too shabby.

I dream of Gina with short brown hair

Lookie! Finally got my hair cut after a couple of years.


It was nice to get it cut off. Yeah, I've had the cut before and didn't really go in for anything different, but I thought it would be a nice start. I can go shorter in another couple of months and shoot for a different style then.

I've also been going to WeightWatchers with Rebecca. So far I've lost 4.6 pounds, so not too bad. The goal is to lose 5 a month since that's nice and safe. That should also get me to my 10% goal by the end of July. I'm happy to have Rebecca and Karen to hold me accountable. Otherwise, I'd be blowing the whole weight issue off.

Brother brought by the new nephew, Kruz. Here's Nanny holding her new grandson while on the phone with Grandpa.


He's already grown so much! He's over a month old now and a total sweetie. And Sis, here's evidence that Art's actually taking an active role in his care.


Yeah, I've been knitting on the KP blanket, but I've got nothing I want to show. I only have 9 more days to finish it and turn it in. AAAGHHHHH!

But other than that, I'm OK.

I need to start me a band

My Aliases

Your movie star name: Zingers Ray

Your fashion designer name is Regina Rome

Your socialite name is Beana Portland

Your fly girl / guy name is R Woo

Your detective name is Cat Battle Ground

Your barfly name is Chips Ahoy Cape Cod

Your soap opera name is Elaine 176th Street

Your rock star name is Butterfingers Cheetah

Your star wars name is Regsmu Woojas

Your punk rock band name is The Overwhelmed UFO

The Amazing Meganame Generator

New leaf

I've decided to go back on W*ightW*tch*rs. I've been creeping back up to my all-time high and I don't want to go there again. Lucky for me, Rebecca is willing to do it with me too. We've decided to attend the meetings rather than do the online thing.

Now, I lost 25 lbs 3 years ago doing the online version, but I need more motivation this time around. More accountability too. So here it is. On Tuesday, April 12 I weighed in at 197.6, and started counting points on Wednesday.

Keep an eye on me, OK? I'm taking on two jobs and only getting paid for 1, I just paid taxes to Uncle Sam and I'm HUNGRY.

How many activity points can you get with knitting?

Saturday in the Park

Clock tower at Esther Short Park

Last Saturday there was a walk and a health fair down at Esther Short Park. Mom was manning the booth for Walk About magazine and I showed up at noon to keep her company.

Here's Mom standing below the clock tower. Water runs down the sides, not quite a waterfall, but definitely a water feature. There are sculptures of salmon at the base as if they are going to jump up the clock's watery sides.

But was Mom feeling a little hungry? Or having a private moment with one of the salmon?

At noon the tower has doors that swing open and a story is told about the Indians that fished the Columbia River for the salmon. I'd never been down there for that before and it was pretty interesting to watch everyone stop and listen.

Like a knife to my heart

My poor car!

So I'm walking out to my car this morning, planning my day. Get to work early, run the reports, work the issues, leave early since Rebecca's coming over for Craft Night.

Ran into a small problem though. It didn't look like I'd be able to tell what speed I was going. Someone apparently needed my gauges more than I did. After checking if anything else was missing, taking pictures and trying the Sheriff's office, I took a few minutes to cry.

This car, my lovely 1993 Honda Civic, was the first car I'd ever purchased. I've been the only owner and we have shared over 209,000 miles together. We have been violated.

At least they were nice and left the screws behind.

Breezy with the start of the KP blanket

What Book Are You?

You're Catch-22!

by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you
see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense
of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an
ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You
could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of
people.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Of illness, family and the ever present knitting

I'm working on trying to get past my second major cold in the last 6 weeks. Was doing well except for the cough that wouldn't go away, but now it's clear . . . I'm sick.

I've got sinus stuff going on, the ever present cough and I'm having trouble sleeping at night even with the OTC cold medicine. However, it's not bad enough to keep me home. Major suckage.

BUT! Sis 1 of 2 now has her house back to normal. Miss Micki has exited stage right to a local assisted living home. Much better all around. Without spilling any gory details, suffice it to say that dastardly deeds were averted with this move and hopefully everyone will live happily ever after. Please God.

Sis 2 of 2 has changed the name of her blog. She's no longer Do Bee Do, but now Little buds on blooming trees. Same person, but feeling a wider range open to her through a simple name change.

Bro 1 of 1 is doing well with his new boy. His little family will be venturing north to visit Sis 1 of 2 this upcoming weekend and everyone is excited to be able to spend time with the baby.

The 'rents have begun the move to the next chapter in their lives. Dad is now in San Diego in an apartment working for the new company. Mom is at our house working and waiting until summer when she can join Dad. Looks like they'll opt to move their sailboat down to SD, but not live aboard at this time. They'll hang out in the apartment and hope the real estate bubble bursts sometime soon for them to be able to buy something.

I've started my next project (the Cotton Classic vest for my niece was a hit and I'm expecting a pic from the sis to post here). I picked up the yarn and pattern to work on a baby blanket. Wait, let me reword that. I picked up the pattern and yarn from Knit Picks to do the catalog sample they asked me to knit.

Love, love, love the yarn. It's one that will be coming out under their brand name soon and very soft. I have until May 11 to get it done, so I've got to get hopping.

More later!

Props to the sis for finding this!

Too Too FUNNY!

Here's Kendra waiting patiently for her turn to deliver. She was originally scheduled for a C-section at 9am, but due to a couple of emergencies that bumped her down in the queue, she didn't get into the OR until after 1pm.

Brother Art and his new boy. Kruz has more hair and weighs less than Art at the same age. Art was bald, 2 weeks overdue, over 9 lbs and according to my mom he was so big he was smooth as a bowling ball.

Kruz Axel, born March 14th sometime after 1pm. Dad didn't pay any attention to the time since he was too excited and teary-eyed to notice. 7 lbs, 11.5 oz and 20 inches long.

New Nephew!

Kruz Axel Freeman made his appearance this afternoon just after 1pm. He was greeted by a weeping dad and a happy mom and plenty of relatives and friends. He scored 9.9 on his first test (APGAR). Pictures to follow once they get sent to me!

Now I get to start knitting on another sweater for him - the Mexicali Ole from Knitters.

And get this! I finally got an email back from Knit Picks - I'll get to start sample knitting for them to meet their 4/4 deadline. Yay!

Weeds are really low on my gardening priorities when you see these sprouting up in the lawn instead.

Spring 2005 is coming! This is 3 weeks before the official start of the season