Progress towards 2015 Goals and 2016 Plans

Progress on 2015 goals:

Lobster trap floats on Macmillan Pier

During 2015 I lost 15 pounds and regained 10. Still ahead for the year, but a rather sorry showing. Back on Weight Watchers for me! I have already started that. I did not ride or paddle nearly enough, and Mitzi did not get a daily walk. I did some swimming, which I did not include in my goals but which surely counts as exercise. I not only finished the sweater in progress last January, but also knit another. The lace shawl I wanted to knit has been cast on, but is only about 10 inches square. I did not try entrelac at all. I did try needle felting, and made Vivian a needle felted gift.  I am not satisfied with my reading, although I probably read more than last year. I can't have posted here weekly - I can see less than 52 posts are up. Another goal missed. I did post daily on Twitter and probably at least weekly on Instagram. Better than nothing. Tumblr was a bust. Clearly 365 is not my Tumblr jam. Another theme will be selected. I did volunteer at MSPCA, but will be doing something different this year. The coffee dates I wanted to plan to increase how often I see friends were not weekly but not absent either. More follow up needed here. In the garden some goals were achieved and some not so much. I did get another flower bed well started, but my veggies did not do all that well. 

Goals for 2016: 

Matching Fleece

Improved weight management and fitness is on the menu again. Official numbers: three gym visits per week, one kayaking trip per week all summer, swimming every time I go to the beach, Cycling twice per week.

In knitting I want to finish the lace shawl, Shana's vest, a crochet cactus garden for Shana, a poncho for myself, and at least three pair of mittens. I still want to try entrelac or brioche stitch, and I will include it although I may not actually get to it. I will make at least another needle felted object.

I want to get a weekly post up here on the blog, and at least one weekly post on Tumblr. I think I will post pictures on Mitzi there. I have to have a specific theme for Tumblr for that little side project to work.

My volunteer gig this year will be two shifts in the office of Waquoit Congregational Church. Shana volunteered me, but I am willing to do it, particularly for a better connection with the other church members. I still need to call my other seldom seen friends for coffee dates. I have some free time to do it and I need to broaden and deepen my friend base. This year I will also join the Mashpee Women's Club and sign up for a book club therein. That will also improve progress towards reading goals.

good behavior

This year I will not put in another flower bed. I am going to turn over a portion of my veggie garden to flowers and double down on the veggie crops that do well for me. Collards, herbs and tomatoes for sure, string beans and carrots seem to do OK. I will move some of the plants from my entry bed to areas where their surprising and inappropriate size will be a better fit (I'm looking at YOU, miscanthus chinesis!). This will involve enlarging the bed at the front of the house a little - running it around the corner enough for the miscanthus and one or two substantial shrubs to give a better balance to the northwest corner of the foundation plantings. Even though the bed will be a little bigger I will not be planting anything fussy or expensive. I'll finish my delightful bottle tree, after giving it the winter to be sure it will hold up for me, and install a bird house in the northeast corner bed. I will improve the amount of time spent weeding the beds I already have instead of lounging about watching the Today Show. I'd like to add another bird bath as well. In order to improve my edging performance I need to either improve my wrapping skills or track down one of those aftermarket items that does not need refilling. I hate rewinding the edger string with a white hot passion. One of my friends is buying a house this spring, and I can exorcise any desires for new beds on her place. And maybe pass on some of my more vigorous devils!

On 6A

My out of left field goal for this year is to learn to play the ukulele. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to choose from, and with only a few cords I think I would enjoy it. We have an instrument already.

This list of goals seems manageable and a little ambitious, so we'll see how I do. In the meantime here's a video worth seeing. It's in Russian, and the subtitles are a delightful diversion in themselves.

Feel the Bern

It's long, but if you can't get to a rally maybe you'll want to hear the whole thing. He's not getting as much media coverage as Hilary Clinton's emails, but supporters are turning out in droves.

Midsummer Doldrums

Well, not quite doldrums. The garden is in its July glory, waiting for me to take some new pictures. Three knitting projects are still on the needles, and two finished objects I have are not yet blocked . Spare time is spent on the beach, reading Anthony Trollop's nice novels about people trying to marry for money.

Politics are already driving me into a rage - I am honestly not quite sure what is so much worse about Donald Trump than the rest of the numerous venal old white men vying for the GOP nomination. Apparently the RNC does not like him, but I suspect that is because he is not already bought and paid for. That we know of.

So. Not having anything much to show off I will treat you to a video of something quite blamelessly cute:

More Cowbell

Snowing again this morning, but one thing that can make a snowy morning a little more bearable is DANCING!

Let's Think About Something Else

Our snow total for yesterday was a foot. In March. Temperatures under 20° all day. I'm grouchy, so we need some elevating content:

And at Last a Distraction

Yes, we are still (partially) buried in snow, but now instead of being up to our eyeballs we are just up to our butts. I suspect the residents of Boston are still mighty discontented, the more so since we will be getting more snow tonight, but at least here the roads are in pretty good shape. Still really icy on the side roads though. I ran across a video this morning that I just had to share. I had no idea Octopi could move so fast!

Finished With Your Wrapping Yet?

Most of us are already rat holing any gift bags we receive for reuse, but maybe yours are at last too shabby to use again or the wrong size. You don't need to make a special trip back to the store for another spendy gift bag, all you need is some medium weight wrapping paper, tape, and scissors. If you haven't already seen this trick you need it!

An Excuse Not to Bake for the Holidays

Off and on for most of my life I have cranked out batch after batch of Christmas cookies for holiday feasting or gifts. My last years in Oklahoma City I made eight or ten trays with four to six kinds of cookies, a quick bread, and some homemade candies garnished with holiday commercial candies & wrapped in cellophane. I loved making them and they were well received as gifts. Since I have lived in Massachusetts I have not made a single batch of Christmas cookies. Mainly it's because I don't have enough people to gift to make it worth while to make many different kinds, and it's not as much fun to make just one or two kinds. Maybe next year I will make some and take them around to my neighbors. It was never cheap or easy to make them but I liked doing it. Some years I did them by myself, other years my daughter Jennifer would help, or my nephew Kyle, or Shana's Aunt Rita.


When I was a girl we would make a lot of cookies, and for the holidays we would make several favorites and a couple of experimental varieties. There was often an Irish Tea Cake, and always some kind of sweet bread for a quick and festive Christmas morning breakfast. It's a tradition worth keeping.

For my excuse this year maybe I will blame it on Martha Stewart, who does everything so well that there is no need for mere mortals to even try.  I do see that she has loads of help, so my pathetic lack of staff will be an additional excuse.

WKRP Thanksgiving Promotion

If you haven't seen this one for a while it's worth a look. Cracks me up every time.

Check Your Privilege

Having grown up in a Catholic family Irish on one side the concept of "Who do you think you are" and a robust sense of the starving children in China I may have escaped the sense of my privilege but not the fact of it. If you did not like what happened in Ferguson but think it will not happen to you because it's strictly a Black thing you need to check your privilege.

Another thing you should do is read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Thoughtfully. When you step out to demonstrate against Wall Street, Income Inequality, Personhood, or whatever White People's Issue mobilizes you you may find that the tear gas is aimed at you. Unless you are of the 1% Ferguson is your town, Ferguson's civil rights are your civil rights.

So. If you are not already voting at every opportunity, start now. If you have something to say, say it now. Don't let your silence be taken for consent. If your elected representatives do not act in the interest and with the will of the people they serve vote them out. When the next batch proves no better vote them out too. 90% of the American people want gun control, want Medicare to be able to negotiate prescription drug prices, want to see banksters go to prison for tanking the economy and letting us pay for it, want the minimum wage to be a living wage.

And for something completely different:

E-Day

Some time ago I met a young woman named Esther. A charming and attractive girl who caused a bit of a stir everywhere she went by flirting with other people's girlfriends, she was self employed as a masseuse, so her schedule had a tendency to be erratic. She did not want to miss out on any jobs, but needed to be sure she had some time set aside for herself. Enter E-Day (Esther Day). Her  E-Day was Thursday; on E-Day she took no jobs, did not favors, did nothing that was not for her own benefit and pleasure.

I have declared Monday to be my E-Day (Ellen Day). I do no work, nothing useful of any kind if you want to be specific. No waiting around for a plumber, no picking up prescriptions, no lawn mowing, no nothing. Monday morning I go to a knitting group for a couple of hours, then out to lunch with a friend and maybe a bit of yarn shopping. I might stick around at one of the local yarn shops to knit with another group, or I might do a little window shopping at another yarn store or a local nursery. Maybe I bring a friend home to sit around knitting and gossiping. Whatever I choose to do it is of my own choosing and is a pleasurable activity. It's surprising how accommodating people can be to your schedule if you are very firm about what you are willing to do. There was a little initial resistance to E-Day due to the general flexibility of my schedule and the obvious frivolity of my plans for the day, but that petered out pretty quick. E-Day is for me only - ask your favors and request my help on any other day.

Halloween is here, and Just Jesse has a video to celebrate!

National Dog Day

At my house it may seem that every day is Dog Day, but this town opens their pool for a dog party before they close for the season:


Richard, does this make up for the chicken video?

Out on the Water

Today the weather was perfect, and my kayaking friends were available for a kayaking afternoon. At last we took our new kayaks out for a spin. Shana and I have had them for a couple of months but were a little nervous about loading them up and actually going for a paddle. We wanted to get out with a couple of experienced paddlers for our first time out so we would be prevented from looking too stupid.

We went down to Mashpee Neck and put in there. From there we were able to take a paddle through a marsh where we could enjoy a bit of nature and a bit of peeking at the backsides of the summer houses of the 1% , then out to Thatch Island where Sue, Shana and I had a nice walk on the beach and Sue and Dea were able to have a little swim. In contrast with the crowded public beaches, the beach on the south side of Thatch Island was deserted and beautiful. Shana was in love! The water was reasonably warm today, but the air temperature was pleasant; it was a perfect day to be out on the water. I was pleased to note that my new kayak and paddle were comfortable to use, and my flotation jacket was very suitable for the sport. I kept my old iPhone to use as a kayak camera that I could upload from later because I already have a waterproof case for it. I didn't take my new one with me because I was not sure about my waterproof storage, but the things I carried in there were just fine. Since I was overturned in a matter of minutes the last time I kayaked I did not want to take any camera that was not protected out with me. We had a great time, topped off with a delicious fried fish dinner from Cooke's Seafood before we went our separate ways. Shana and I will definitely go back there to kayak, especially after Labor Day when parking is less of a problem. There are just a few pictures here, as usual I will upload more to my Flickr gallery.

What I learned today: 1. put your paddles in the car so you don't have to go back to get them. 2. quick dry clothing is really only effective if you have quick dry underwear. 3. take a snack bar or something out with you because if you don't you will be starving. 4. We know how to load up and put in well enough to enjoy a kayaking afternoon. This is valuable information because Cape Cod is a kayaking paradise. There are dozens of nice places to paddle accessible to us with a very short drive. The place where we went today is probably about 15 minutes from our house. Now that we feel confident about our skills we can go out any afternoon for a couple of hours without thinking twice about it.

 Holiday knitting is proceeding slowly. I have run into a classic problem of the pattern I want to use and the yarn I want to use not matching up. I'll know better in about 37 rows (!) if it's possible to make the yarn bend to my will. Something tells me I will do better to scale the pattern a bit to use the needle size the yarn wants instead of knitting on when I know I will not be happy with the fabric the needles that will get me gauge will make. Hard lessons, and ones I seem to have to learn afresh every single year. I'm hard headed. I should really look for a pattern that suits the gauge this yarn wants to be knit to.


And Just for you, Richard, a chicken video borrowed from Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff!

Saying Goodbye to a Hero of Recycling

Milly Zantow has passed away is Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin at 91. I had never heard of her, and I'd be willing to bet most people have not either. She started a recycling company in Wisconsin and created the plastics recycling symbol you see on the bottom of everything to this day. Below is an interview with her, very interesting and not too long. What an inspiration - a single person who wanted to make a difference and did it.

Instead of Raising Goats...

...I will amuse myself by posting screaming goats. Don't say I didn't warn you.

It's a Dogs Life

Dogs add so much to our lives. I've got two at the moment - one young and spry and the other an elderly lady. Old dogs and disabled dogs don't seem to spend a lot of time sulking about their condition; they just continue with life as it is.

A Delightful Musical Interlude

Cat Time

I saw an interesting post today, it read "Cats know how you feel. They just don't care!". That probably about sums it up. Here's some more cat for your viewing pleasure:

Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig

I'm just back from what I call The Western Loop - my yearly visit to Denver to see my mother and brother combined with a visit to Oklahoma City to visit my younger children, my granddaughter and my best friend. It was quite a good visit in both places this year but I am glad to be home. It involves a fair amount of travel time and this trip ran me through Cleveland and Newark to get the lowest fare. I do not recommend the Newark airport, but on the whole I prefer it to O'Hare. In the past  it's been really awkward to schedule my flights, but Expedia has finally made it easy to  book a trip with several legs and it saves me a fair amount. I generally go in January or early spring, but this year I am so glad I waited until later because the winter was tough and there were so many cancellations I would probably have spent my vacation in some airport.

I had two (!) birthday cakes, and lots cool gifts and fun visiting with everyone.  I wish I either lived closer or airfares were a lot cheaper so I could come around more often. We manage to pack a lot into a few days, but I think I would enjoy a more casual pace just as much. Unscheduled time to just hang out doing nothing would be a treat.


Mom and I spent my first afternoon there in the parking lot at K Mart having locked her keys in the car. Not as bad as you might think, as the weather was good and the passing parade of people was a lot like going to the fair. We spent a fair amount of our waiting time laughing. A very nice lady helped us out after our first locksmith came along asking for much more than the advertised price and entertaining us with a fascinating stream of conversation that had us mesmerized while we waited for her AAA road service. Mom and I proceeded on to our planned dinner at Village Inn in high spirits. This time we did not go on a yarn store field trip because my visit was a little short and we had a lot of projects to do, not the least of which was to do battle with huge and ugly weeds which had taken over her flower beds. It felt good to be outside gardening in shorts without a giant sweatshirt - it's still too cold here in Massachusetts to do a lot. Richard and I had a good visit too. He's turned into quite the container gardener and has much better results than I do with cacti.

This time in Oklahoma City I got to stay with Alex, which was a big improvement over staying in a crummy motel. Much cozier, much cheaper and much more to my taste. I could spend my hotel money on treats for the kids instead of on a room whose safety I have reason to doubt. Sami lives just across the back yard and Vivian was there all weekend, so I was able to spend the most time possible with family. We mostly ate, hung out, and shopped. I swear in three days I drove across NW Oklahoma City fifty times.  After significant driving confusion Alex had to ask if there were traffic lights on Cape Cod - I had to admit there are hardly any. Traffic problem on the Cape are almost all the result of millions of tourists cramming themselves onto roads designed for a much slower pace of life. Weather in Oklahoma was windy, but the trees are in full leaf there and I loved being outside in temperatures above 50 degrees (the wind was high the whole time I was there, but the promised bad weather went east of Oklahoma into Arkansas). I actually wore flip flops and shorts!


 After an inspiring visit to Gourmet Yarn  and its wonderful selection of beautiful yarn Sami thought she might like to learn to knit, so next time I will see how much I can teach her, maybe supplemented by a gift of lessons. Gourmet opened its doors while I was living in Oklahoma City and it was grown into a wonderful shop. Sami and I spent quite a while there poking around molesting yarn. I purchased a few items, mostly for holiday knitting and Sami bought me a beautiful skein of Opal sock yarn for my birthday.

I got to attend services at Epworth United Methodist with my friend Sharon Sunday and visited  Jimmy's Egg for lunch. We had a leisurely breakfast with good conversation and delicious food. It was a special treat to have a nice visit with Sharon and the raisin toast and "garbage breakfast" at Jimmy's Egg is something I dream about all year. The only thing wrong with our visit is that it was just TOO SHORT. Sharon came to see us on the Cape last year and a week was not quite long enough either. One meal's worth of conversation or a week once in a while does not compare with the conversations we would have while riding our bicycles 40 miles together and having breakfast afterwards every week.

Our home projects are proceeding slower than we would  like due to rain every other day. It's great for the landscaping projects but less so for fence building and painting the outside of the house. Today some guys are delivering out fencing, which outrages the dogs even though they will benefit from it the most. Ingrates! I am thrilled with the quality and scope of our projects and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Shana has decided to replace our bulkhead doors as well. Our current ratty rusty doors would not compare well with the cleaned shingles and freshly painted trim on the house.

From the Other Side of the World

Fascinated by meerkats? Me too!