progress has been made...

on several fronts! progress! that's all you can hope for most times, progress huh?
i am almost done with mom's belt, really. i know i've said that before but it only needs a few more inches as most of the length from the waist will be fringe so it should be done this week and a pattern for the belt posted on my patterns page. the sweater, the as yet un-named sweater is still not any more done than it was before, still sleeveless and dreaming of sleeves but i have purchased buttons and sashes. i love these tiny irridescent buttons. they are exactly what i was imagining when i went shopping for buttons. i love when that happens! and i love love love the turquoise lace sash. i think i love the lace too too much but i couldn't leave the stripe at the store so the stripe will be a belt with jeans or maybe with the teal wool sweater/jacket i have planned. hmmm waist length, single botton, embellished sleeves. i also have big plans for the fad classic i started, i love it's crochet like stitch, and i plan to make it a midriff length and add a mid thigh length silk skirt to it, to be worn over jeans. should be trendy and i have to keep up with the trends so no one guesses how old i am! ha! double ha ha! that would require a lot of hair dye and i'm not doing it! not never! i've come to love the texture of my hair without chemicals and anyway i earned this gray! and speaking of both youth and progress the guy bought a new bike and it is sweet! it is gorgeous! it sounds like thunder! more bike pics here. i think it will keep him young and take off some of the years that his illness and surgery added. and he likes it! hey mikey! he likes it! he's out taking it for a spin around the block as we speak! we only put 75 miles on it yesterday and we plan to do better today so we're off! later...love g

casual friday self portrait...

friday july 28, 2006 at 4:16p.m. thank god that day was over. i'm starting to see a pattern...one looks whipped at the end of the last day of the week! hmmm work must be bad for you! have a good weekend! later... love g

clowns to the left of me....

jokers to the right! it's casual friday and i didn't forget to bring my camera but even so one of my favorite participants for friday pics went home sick and my little cube was sooooo hectic that i hardley had time to observe who wore what but i did sneak out between chores to snap a few clowns that i noticed walking by. yea the one on the right is wearing two different shoes...but they both match! she doesn't just do this on friday either that's a regular habit, some people are just indecisive i guess! for a dollar your can check out what's under the skirt! and for a quarter you can leave insults on any day of the week, insults about the tan are only nickle. we have to amuse ourselves somehow and she is the doctor after all and spends much of the day listening to people vent and bitch (people like me lately) so she needs more diversions than the rest of us! so anyway here's what's under the skirt. you get to see this today only not every day guys! my laryngytis turned into an earache and a sore throat and i have little white things growing on my tonsils again, didn't i just have that? i must take time to have a full lunch half hour and a break here and there and my goal this week is to do everything on time. like the selfportrait challenge not work what do ya think i'm nuts! my goal is also to finish my mothers belt this week and my new sweater which by the way i bought little glass buttons for (they are so so cute) and some lace and ribbon (i couldn't decide which i liked) for a belt, all she needs is sleeves and a name! can't wait to show you but right now i have a floor to scrub and a bike ride to take and some flip flops to shop for and i have to eat some food and add some more pattern notes to the blu smock and i must show you my friday self portrait. i've gotten into the habit of snapping myself on the way out the door in the last minutes of every friday. but that's for another post i guess two is the limit her! later...love g

busy busy busy...

and busy! i finally got my self portrait for the week done and how cool is this? check it out and all the others of course at the selfportrait challenge! i was way too busy this week , canoe trip, all that cooking, did a little shopping for the grandaughter and had a birthday dinner for my baby boy who's 30 this year! so the monday spc turned into a wednesday nite spc. my voice is back and i'm sure everyone is happy about that and i was nudged to start writing my pattern for the blue smock by a fellow sexy knitter who wanted to start knitting it..here goes. i published it, in part, on gaysknits/patterns page. you remember the blue smock? yea...this one. more pics on gaysknits/fashion statements! it was knit a little while ago from berroco/denim silk and i loved the fit and comfort and drape of it. so i flashed a pic of it on the sexy knitters and a few people expressed interest in knitting it. i have not completed the pattern notes but i will and if anyone wants to knit it they can ...or not. i have another in the works but seriously i can't find the time to work on it. yea yea you're sick of hearing that. but the guy and i have a mortorcycle to shop for and then there's ebay and self portraits and camera shopping and work is a drain these days but then there's the casual friday pics i want to start posting. and by casual i do not me me and the guy sitting around in our underwear! but back to the blue smock. i wanted a semi gather on the sleeve like a blouse i have but it didn't quite work out as i wanted and then i saw this lovely pattern and the name of it is rusted root i may have to knit it just because of that! and speaking of rusted root the guy is listening to them as we speak hmmm maybe that's why i thought of all this anyway! later...love g

did you ever...

feel like the carpet was pulled out from under you ever time you stepped on it? like no matter what you do someone is always going na na na na na naaa? like you're not appreciated? like nothing fits anymore? well i feel sorta like that today and yesterday and the day before that and...well you get the picture. i've been so busy so i've done no knitting and no photography and no spc this week to date and i had a good one planned too! i went canoeing on sunday and took as many pictures as i could but let me tell you taking pictures on a moving motorcycle is easier than taking pictures on a canoe that you are trying to paddle. just not happening! so i have a few good ones but this one is my favorite and the guy took it at my request. this is my favorite activity in the world...floating. my mom taught me to float on my back when i was a girl and i can do it for hours and hours, seriously for hours. at no other time am i just being except when floating on my back in the water. i have no restrictions, no ties, nothing under or over me and i'm free to float and float and float. today i've been floating through my life with larygyntis...again. later... love g

what? no camera!?!

today is casual friday and me without a camera. bummer! well let me just tell you what happened...picture this...on the floor twisted up into some wierd and wonderful yoga pose were two people. i was one of them and the other was, you know who else does yoga! anyway there we were on the floor of her cubicle her in her sari and i in my (fortunatly)very full skirt twisted like pretzels. we were captured on a cell phone pic but as it happens the owner of the cell doesn't yet know how to email those pics so we'll wait and maybe i'll try it out here with my cmera or maybe next friday!!! have a great weekend...later...love g

happy birthday...

today i got piles of work done and tomorrow i plan to get not piles done...it's casual friday and you know that means... pictures.... of clowns at work so wear something pretty!!! and speaking of clowns...check out these clown pics taken last week! today was the guys birthday so we ate fried foods for dinner and chocolate pie and went for a bike ride to the yamaha store to buy him a birthday present but the bike dealer wasn't going for what we thought was a good deal for our bike so we have no new bike today! but has any one spent any amount of time on the back seat of a yamaha royal star tour deluxe??? huh...has anyone??? well my butt wants to know cause it looks like that bike is going to be in our future and it's not an easy chair like the goldwing i tell ya! but it's a beauty and a very cool bike! cousin dani got her motorcycle liscense and her bike is on the way to her from arizona so we look forward to riding with her one day soon! wellll i shall see you in my lens on casual friday and i have no knitting news to report as usual. when am i going to get back to that? maybe when i have no bike to shop for and birthdays to buy for and office chairs to assemble and laundry to do and frye boots to buy online and phone calls to make from florida (mom and harry are selling thier joint in florida) and gardening to discuss with my vet son who is now gardening..cool!later...love g

totally naked baby totally nude...

just walking, no strolling down electric avenue at 7:45 am today on my way to work. a grown man dressed only in a bandage (on his ankle) was strolling along with a group of gawkers behind him (who could blame them) and a girl friend (isn't she lucky) beside him on her cell phone yaking and holding out, what i can only assume was his pants! good morning!!! sorry didn't have my camera, no pics! later... love g

i'm not where i'm supposed to be today...

my back hurts, can't stand, can't sit, i didn't sleep at all last nite and i'm tired. but i'm fine see you tomorrow! love g

boy i could have used that tatoo today...

you know the one i mean, diane's lovely new one, could've used it today! it would've been right at home with me today! the guy and i woke up at the crack of dawn to ride out to greensburg to be a part of a group of 85 motorcycles who rode to meet up with 85 or more motorcycles and to ride in to pittsburgh, oakland and then to schenely park for thunder run 2006, part of the vintage grand prix. we did two laps around the race course, there were an estimated 300 bikes, mostly harley's. loud shiney beautiful harley's. smelled like exhaust sounded like potato!
the ride ended in a picnic grove with a pig roast and all the ice water you could drink! i drank my share...it was 90 degrees man! hot! more pics here but they aren't so hot as i would've liked but you'll get the idea! we came home early in the afternoon, around 2:00 to relax and enjoy our new air conditioning we surrendered to the heat yesterday but when we put the old window ac unit in and turned it on rrr,rrr,rrr oops,no motor, not running! so we went to lowes and bought a bigger, better one.
then we went to the movies to see cars and to have pizza and a game of air hockey with the daughter and the kids. the new air conditioner is in the window and the old one is in the big box and we're cool & smiling now! later...love g

casual friday...

i think i'll start a new thing, pics at work on casual friday...it gets pretty interesting there on fridays! you know...i don't want to work i just want to bang on the drum all day! today we pictured the girls who make our supervisor want to bang his head on the wall...again! and check out this lovely new tatoo on diane, well the taking of this photo also made same sup want to shoot himself in the head
that's why he's on vaca for the next two weeks! i do that to people with out even trying!
yesterday i took some fun pics of the electric light girls and one day i'll post those, i need permission first! it is HOT today, definatly too hot for knitting. i am done with the body of my newest creation but need some sleeves and the heat has made me only want to ride the bike. so that's what we have been doing nights, riding till we aren't hot anymore...and on sunday we ride a poker run for the pittsburgh vintage grand prix, should be fun and a great opportunity for some fabulous pics. and the new boxers pups were born on wednesday nite 7/12/06. check this out for pics. they are soooo very cute and tiny and the vet is getting a girl puppy and her name shall be "chewy!" she will be named after her predecessor sox who made that chewbacca sound...ahhrrrrgh...when she wanted your attention! so here are todays casual friday pics
and more biker pics will be coming later in the week. and one more thing...i went to circuit city tonite and played with the camera of my dreams and ooohwweee i think i've sold myself on it! later...love g

spc...now someone else wants to play!

here's a self portrait of the son in law waiting to fly to france...i can't post this on the spc website,that requires an invitation and a password and i have already posted my one per week on the site but here it is and let me say now do you see why i do these things??? here he is in all his frustration!!!



"This is me waiting for
the fools on the wing of the plane to stop (literally) scratching their
heads in a cluster around an open engine access panel. Needless to say we
didn't fly that day. After sitting in the plane for an hour in the heat on
the runway with no air conditioning (you don't get air w/out engines) they
sent us back into the airport. Wow! Lot's of prepositional phrases in that
last sentence.

Later from smelly France,
J"

selfportrait challenge...

has picked me again! i feel like sally fields when she said "you like me you really really like me!!!" i'm honored and flattered and happy to announce that the self portrait contributers picked another one of my photographs as a favorite this past week!!! this is my third to be picked and people have sent lovely comments and have enjoyed my stories so that's a good thing cause i like the telling and the stories really are the self portraits for me! check it out to see some great expressions of self and speaking of expressions i read a real cool article in the pittsburgh post gazette today about a traveling exhibit of photographs of women in what they consider dressing for success, the photos were taken in five cities from alaska to mississippi, pittsburgh being one of those cities. the exhibit is called "Trapping: Stories of Women Power and Clothing" it's not what you think so while you're checking things out check the article out here. any one care to visit the exhibit, it's at cmu campus until aug 4...and while you're there you can see the art pole in person and decide for yourself art or atrocity!! later on...love g

only 99 cents!!!

yep...only 99 cents, less than one dollar, a bargain no matter what it is! and a real bargain if it something you've always wanted, with all your heart! wellllll that's a bit of a stretch but i have always wanted garden clogs and have NEVER wanted to spend the way too much money everyone wants to charge for garden clogs. and especially now that crocs are the rage, have you seen crocs? how could you not have seen crocs, sure they're cute and comfy and they were a novel idea maybe, three years ago and now they are on everyones feet from here to mars and i mean mars the planet not mars, pa. but now that they are so popular regular gardeners are hard pressed to find the things for less than forty bucks. to walk in mud! filthy dirty mud! that really does not wash off no matter how hard you squirt it with the hose, even on firemans spray, which sends any item not nailed down flying through the air until it lands in the stupid neighbors yard, and by that i mean stupid, anal, hard to get along with neighbor. so when the guy told me these were on sale at cvs for 99 cents well...me and usha dropped everything and ran to the cvs to score these beauties for only 99 cents!!! hers are green! don't ya think they'll look lovely with mud? later...love g

pirates and sharks n' at

just paying tribute to the south side! the guy and i and friend phil went to the south side for an adventure, here we are in front of the cheesecake factory.
we were to be four but unfortunatly kathy was otherwise engaged so we were three today. the south side works was lousy with pirates and sharks...really...i'm serious! our destination was r.e.i outdoor adventure store, we went looking for cool outdoor gear and they have lots of it there. we also found the inspiration there to plan a canoe trip this for later this month, i'm excited about that, i've always wanted to canoe and never have, and we have a canoe...what's up with that, but on july 23rd we shall canoe! i didn't just find a cool headwrap for motorcycling or a wicking tank top for hiking or a surprise for the guy's birthday later this month but i also found a good old friend lurking in men's underwear! i guess i'm not the only one sleeping in mens underwear! anyway we exchanged email addresses and perhaps, hopefully, we'll be seen together for some fun! the south side works has some serious shopping and i'm just the girl for the job, i'll be planning a trip for the electric light girls and/or mom and i could spend a few minutes there...after all, they have ann taylor and restaurants everywhere...quite the temptation! so we saw the pirates of the caribean, part deux, dead mans chest and oooh that johnny depp is some cool pirate and i'm not the only one who thinks so. a group of youths were dressed in pirate gear and "damsel in distress" dresses and were on a mission to make pirates of caribean the new rocky horror picture show! and by the by the new trend is britches under your short short skirts with black hair for optimum effect and little black flats or converse high tops...uuh none for me thanks but i may show up sporting the pirate look someday in your future!
and i promised you a shark so here is a shark i spotted on the street in the south side, some people will take a picture of anything! and speaking of art, not that i was speaking of art or that these pictures are art but the shark pic is kind of cool, don't ya think? but as i was saying, speaking of art, look at this art that has been installed on the main campus of cmu! and they're the smart people? hmmm. g'nite i gotta go...later...love g

the fourth of july and plymouth...

yarn, linen isle to be specific. i visited my favorite local yarn store, bonnies knits, a few weeks back for the purpose of buying some hemp or similar yarn to make a belt for my mom. she has requested a beige belt to wear with one of her beige outfits. i was lucky enough to be there when a yarn rep was showing off his fall wares and it was very interesting and informative and fun and i got a chance to participate in the conversation. but i digress...i found this linen isle yarn made by plymouth and couldn't decide on a color so i bought both! mom likes the solid maize, which is really maize and cream color, very two dimensional and the texture is also two dimensional. i've started a belt which is knitted but doesn't look knitted...to me. the stitch is the same on both sides of the fabric which is nice for a belt.
the other color is a twist of maize and cream and black and purple and i have these lovely checz glass beads which i've strung on the skein and think i'll make a second belt using the same stitch and adding these beads. i'm not sure exactly how the belt will be in the end but i'll figure it out as i go along. the fouth of july weekend for us has been busy. we've been to lake arthur for swimming and fishing, to my brothers for lamb on the grill...yummm, to the plant store for some carnivorous plants for the grandaughter and to the twin lakes arts & heritage festival to dance to the flo band and i had a private demonstration of spinning (yarn) on a spinner and on a drop spindle, i purchased some roving wool to give it a try...one day when i get the guy to turn me a drop spindle on his lathe! i posted my latest photo to the self portrait challenge, i'm feeling a bit political this week as i'm being surrounded with patriotic images and stories as it's the 4th of july. i noticed on the spc site that one of my photos was picked again! yea! i love that...check it out, click on the spc link on my sidebar. i have some flower planting to do today but the rain is steady at the moment so perhaps later...love g