Yarnbombing!!

The target:  Worcester Art Museum.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it:  cover the railings of the front entrance with yarn.

Outcome?  MISSION COMPLETE!

I've always wanted to yarnbomb something.  But I know that some people see it as vandalism so when I saw a general invite on Ravelry looking for yarnbombers at a Community Day event at the Worcester Art Museum, I jumped!

I didn't know exactly where the location was until a few days before, so my  friend Kristina and I couldn't make up any pieces beforehand.  A lot of  this was knit on-the-spot, hence only two railings got done instead of the top four.  Kristina and I got to the museum at 11:00 and there were three women from Providence participating as well.  Later on another girl from our group, Cat, joined us.  It was an incredible time!  However, it was not incredible weather.  We had to move inside to knit the pieces after a while, it got quite frigid out and even started to rain.     Almost every person that walked by us commented on how cool it looked, and some wondered how it would stay on.  The answer is that the pieces are sewn on.  You can use zip ties as well, but sewing looks nicer.

 The end results look great, though.  And I'm told that the museum is going to leave them up for about a week.  I also get to cross "Yarnbombing" off the ol' Day Zero list.  And I made some new Ravelry friends.  Success!!

Guess what?  Yarnbombing is addictive.  I'm already thinking about what's next someday.

Help! I'm stuck inside a movie!

Today's prompt:  What movie would you like to be stuck in for five days?

That's easy...Harry Potter!  Don't make me choose which one....because it's too hard.  Any one of them will do.  I want to go to Hogwarts, ride the train there.  I want to experience the "Beginning of the Year" feast and see all that magic up close!  I want to play Quidditch and drink Butterbeer and experience all the tricks of the Weasley twins.  I especially want to visit The Burrows, and Hogsmeade.  Oh, can I go?  I'll don a Hogwarts robe and make a great student.  I'm not even sure which house I'd be sorted into, and I don't care.  Seriously, when do we leave????

Brothers

The boys posing at Will's birthday party last week.  (or the week before....I've lost track.)

Though they may squabble and have a three-year gap between them, they really are friends, too.  Brian and I took them to the park last weekend, we had a day that was close to the seventies in temperature so it seemed a travesty NOT to take them.  Their favorite thing to do that day?  Not the slides, not the swings.  Nope, to run up a hill and then run down, with Will holding Sean's hand.  This was repeated over and over, with lots of giggles.  I love moments like these!  And though I know that the fighting will continue (Brian likes to point out that "Brotherly Love" isn't what most people think it is) I hope that they're always friends.

First Crush

Who doesn't remember their first crush?  I hadn't thought about mine for years until this week.   I went to a private Catholic school and were forced to wear these gaggy outfits of plaid jumpers, yellow blouses and ties.  Oh, and brown kneesocks.  Sexy.  The boys didn't have it much better....brown pants, same yellow shirt and that "gorgeous" white/black/brown/yellow plaid as a tie.   I vaguely remember this boy.....he had blue eyes and slicked-back hair, and was quite skinny.   I do remember that his name was John, and that I chased him around the blacktop at recess.  That was me....quite subtle.  If I liked you, believe me, you knew about it.

Why all this thinking about crushes?  Last week at Will's birthday party, a friend from our old neighborhood gave him a gift of a rubber-band bracelet.  These are the latest craze, kind of like friendship bracelets or ribbon barrettes or even safety pin-beaded bracelets.  Kids all over are getting these bags of little rubber bands that I think resemble the rubber bands I used to have to use with my braces.  Then you do something with a loom and it makes a cool bracelet.  Well.  I'd been hearing about "Mom!  We NEED to buy a loom!" for over a week.  I had purchased bands but AC Moore was out of looms.  Then lo and behold...while shopping for a big coffee pot for work, there's a bunch of looms at the checkout at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  (I guess that follows in the "Beyond" category.)  I brought it home and he's quite excited!  We're figuring them out together and it's slow going....because though I am a whiz with the knitting needles, I'm kind of crap with a crochet hook.  We'll persevere though, probably by watching YouTube videos.

I asked him who the first bracelet would be for, expecting him to say himself.  I was wrong.  Instead I got "Well, there's this girl named Caroline in my class.....I'm really glad you got pink bands, Mom.  Because those are her favorite."

 And so it begins.  Right on schedule.  :)

Sweet Mother Hen

Today's blog prompt for NaBloPoMo is about one thing that you would change about yourself.  I would make myself more adventurous.

In high school, I earned myself the nickname "Mother Hen."  I was very much a follower, not a leader.  Other people have stories of parties that went well after midnight, sneaking out to Boston, etc.  I have none of this.  Sure, I had friends (who did stuff) and I had fun, but there are no "fearless moments" and nothing bold.  My husband has asked every old friend I've ever had for some dirt on the younger version of Ginny, and they are all surprised that they have none.  If people were partying at someone's house, I was the one hiding in the corner or staying home to avoid getting in trouble.  Then again, my parents never had to pick me up at the police station.  I'm sure they're glad for that.

I've never lived abroad.  I've never immersed myself into a local culture to speak Spanish better. I don't have any stories that start with "When I was in Barcelona/Paris/L.A./New York" or end with "And that's the last time I ever tried flamenco dancing" or "See this scar?  That's how I got it, windsurfing."  

I've never colored my hair purple, or pierced my nose when I thought that I could get away with it.  I've never had a friend say "Let's go to Vegas!" and we do, right then and there.  I've never driven a convertible.  I've never placed a bet on a horse.  Heck, I've never ridden a horse.  I've never jumped off a high dive because I'm afraid of heights.  I've never done theater, I was too chicken to try out for the annual show at the high school, Oskey, or work on any plays in college.  Part of me feels like it's too late for a lot of these things.

You know what I do have?  Happy memories of meeting my husband in a seedy dance club in downtown Providence.  Not a lot of girls would approach a group of Navy sailors and see if they wanted to dance.  Speaking of dancing, I did dance on a table at a bar once, with my friend Joyelle.  I also kissed a stranger once, five minutes after meeting.  (That would be my now-husband.)    So I guess I'm not a total snore.  I also have proof of responsible living, and a clean conscience/rap sheet.  I've got a decent job, and a great family that loves me just as much as I love them.  So I guess being adventurous is great and all but not something that I'm really missing out on.

It's not too late for all of that stuff.....I still could get a tattoo and drive a convertible, right?

Parties make the Best Deadlines

The best way to make sure that something in your house is going to get done?  Plan a party.  

We did that more than once in our old house.  Hubby and I are at a professional level of biting off more than we can chew, and having projects halt due to some kind of chaos of the no-time/no-money variety.  Our old stove was a bit of a loose cannon, and we had two small fires when we first moved.  (Blaming the previous owners....which we did frequently.)  How to cough up enough cash for a new one:  offer to host Thanksgiving Dinner.  Setting the Thanksgiving turkey afire is entertaining, but your guests will likely not want to have dinner at your house again.

One of our bathrooms desperately needed gutting.  We started the project and right after demo I lost my job.  Luckily I was only unemployed for about five days and went back to my old job.Still...dirty words like "Budget" and "cash flow" got in our way.  Here's a fix....Easter was two months away.  Host Easter dinner!  Problem solved....dinner guests had a lovely time and the bathroom was perfectly done in time.  

Brother-in-law coming to stay with you for a week, with three days' notice??  Sure, we can paint the guest room and get new bedding....hell we can even buy a bed!  

So.....we've been living in the "new house" almost five months.  This whole "settle in" thing is refusing to complete itself.  It's really hard to dedicate time to it with working and the rest of life getting in the way.   We are still not unpacked.  All of our walls are basically naked. There are no curtains.   I still haven't gotten a "big boy" comforter for my younger son's twin bed, he is sleeping with a toddler bed-size one of Lightning McQueen that is much to short for his growing body.  The list goes on and on, and things are added daily.

But.....guess who's hosting Christmas this year??  There IS hope after all!  :)

Sometimes a Little Mystery is a Good Thing

Confession:  I am an Aerosmith Fan.

No, not of their new stuff.  As someone who's listened to hours and hours of Aerosmith songs, read their autobiography "Walk this Way" several times,  bought quite a few of their albums and seen them live two (three?) times, they should stick to the classics.  Well, their last good album IMHO was "Get a Grip."  I was in high school, and I remember listening to it in my then-boyfriend's family room from beginning to end.  (God, does anyone do that anymore??)

Anywho....they had a little album called Permanent Vacation come out in 1986-ish.  This was an important album for the band because it was right after they had all gone through rehab.  (Oh yeah....they were whacked outta their minds through most of the seventies and eighties.  But again, another 70's era band making music while on drugs....and later on not making good music sober.)  I'm losing track....back to Permanent Vacation.  It did well and so did the next few albums, putting them back on the charts and on top again.

On Permanent Vacation, there was this song called "The Movie."  It was entirely instrumental, and it was creepy and futuristic sounding.  In the middle of the song, there's a woman speaking alone, and the language was one that I did not recognize.  I always imagined that she was saying something cool, predicting the future, or I don't know...the meaning of life.  I didn't understand it and that's what made it intriguing.

Years later, we have Google.  So one day, I was remembering "The Movie" and decided to plug it in and see what this chick is talking about.  And I was sorely disappointed.

The language is Gaelic.  And the message is:

Theid sinn dhachaidh am bliadhna seo 's bith ceilidh mhor againn
We'll go home this year and we'll have a big ceilidh

's theid sinn chun na Hearadh agus ni sin ceilidh air Nora agus Raonailt [Raonaid?]
and we'll go to Harris and [pay a] visit [there to] Nora and Rachel

's tha mi an dochas gu faigh sinn buntata agus sgadan
I hope we get potato and herring

'S theid sin gu Scalpaidh 's theid sinn a choimhead air Mairi agus ... 
And we'll go to Scalpay and [we'll go] visit [or: go see?] Mary and ...

I think that there's a big BAZINGA! in there somewhere.  And the band must've had a laugh over this for years.  The big mystery.....is about visiting friends for a traditional social gathering, hoping to see our friends Rachel and Nora later, and noshing on spuds and fish.  Huh.

I think I preferred it better when I didn't know.  :)