Ravelry and The Amazing Race

Scripture Reading: Shemot (Exodus) 12:17-14:31

My favorite part:

Exo 12:47 "All the congregation of Yisra’ĕl are to perform it.
Exo 12:48 "And when a stranger sojourns with you and shall perform the Passover to יהוה, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and perform it, and he shall be as a native of the land. But let no uncircumcised eat of it.
Exo 12:49 "There is one Torah for the native-born and for the stranger who sojourns among you."


I finally got my invitation to Ravelry today--yay! My user name there is Tuppence.

So far, I've posted only 1 project--the black Jackyll & Hide--and I'm still in the process of looking at and reading about everyone else's Jackyll & Hides. It's so great to be able to look at the same project done by so many other people and see how different they all are.

I can see that it's going to take me some time to explore and get my notebook set up, but it looks like it will be a lot of fun along the way.

I'm still trying to figure out who I want to root for in The Amazing Race. I definitely find the Mutt and Jeff couple offensive. They are always whining or saying ugly things about the other racers AND each other! I call them the Mutt and Jeff couple because often he appears to be twice her height. Apparently their real names are Jennifer and Nathan.

She's continually wondering outloud, "Do I really want to spend the rest of my life with him?" Hmmm, let's see, he's already cheated on you, he speaks to you and about you with contempt. Gee, I don't know, maybe?

The guy in this couple, Jason, appears to be competent race-wise as well as being even-tempered and nice, but with her shrieking and complaining, his girlfriend looks like she might give ol' Flo of Flo and Zach from TAR 3 a run for the most irritating female ever on The Amazing Race.

We were thinking it would be cool if we could shuffle the teams and pair up nice laid-back Jason with equally nice and sweet Christina since her father has been acting like a jerk and making her cry.

Black Jackyll & Hide Finished

Yesterday's Scripture Reading:

Torah Portion: Toldot (Generations)

Torah: Breisheet (Genesis) 25:19-28:9
Haftarah: Shemuel Alef (1 Samuel) 20:18-42; Malaki (Malachi) 1:1-2:7
Ketuvim Netzarim: Romans 9:1-31


Today's Scripture Reading: Shemot (Exodus) 9:22-12:16





I finished the black Jackyll & Hide convertible balaclava when I was in Houston, but didn't get around to taking pictures until yesterday. Someday I hope to have a good digital camera I can use instead of using my iPaq camera, which doesn't take very good pictures. But at least you can get the general idea from the not-so-great pictures.


He's really happy with it, and of course my younger son is clamoring for his, which is only as far as the neck ribbing section right now. More about that in a subsequent post.


In the meantime, I started crocheting something called a 'Small Stash Basket' from a pattern I downloaded a while back from http://www.bernat.com/.



It is a very tight crochet with cotton yarn, no doubt so that it will hold its shape as a basket when completed. I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

Tacos for dinner!

Inadvisable Multitasking

Scripture Reading: Shemot (Exodus) 7-9:21

I've heard about it many a time in comedy routines, but today I actually witnessed it myself--a woman in the driver's seat in the car in front of me putting on makeup in her rear-view mirror! And it was MASCARA she was putting on--probably the most vision-obscuring makeup process there is.

There was, of course, a delay between the light turning green and her noticing that it was time to make the left turn all of us in that lane were waiting for. Then, continuing to apply her mascara, she jerkily made the left turn, only to stop at the next intersection, which was NOT a stopping place--no stop sign, no traffic light, no pedestrians, no reason to stop whatsoever except that apparently she wanted to concentrate more on her facial artistry than her driving.

I managed to refrain from laying on my horn (only works sporadically anyway), and eventually she realized that it was time to move forward to the next red light, whereupon she continued applying mascara, now to her bottom lashes. After that light turned green and we continued down the road (a busy main artery in town), she went on with the rest of her beauty routine, finishing up with doing her hair.

But was that enough? Oh no, she then continued checking herself in the mirror over and over again, making further adjustments as she deemed necessary. She did manage to avoid hitting anyone during this ridiculous multitasking, as did I while I kept an eye on what she was doing to see what she'd do next. Eventually I got to the post office and had to abandon my position directly behind her.

I was a little disappointed because I was kind of curious to see where she was going that required having to do all that prep work while simultaneously driving there. I also couldn't help but wonder if she was going to start painting her nails next.

My Hardy Betta Boys

Scripture Reading: Shemot (Exodus) 4-6

My bettas are amazing! When I got home, I discovered that no one had fed them while I was gone! While this was an extremely distressing thing to find out after being gone for a week, I couldn't help but be impressed by my little guys' ability to survive under such deprivation.

The two of them live in a little divided tank on my desk and keep me company when I'm working. I changed their water and cleaned their little home this morning, and they are beautiful as usual.

I keep a little kitty rock on top of the tank lid to make sure neither one can make their way over the divider to hurt the other. Bettas are also known as Siamese Fighting Fish, and the males will tear each other up if they can get to each other. I learned this the hard way when I was a teenager and decided to breed them. I had a large tank with dividers that held all of my males separately. I came home from school one day to find them all torn up and not in their proper places because apparently the lid to the tank had not been adequately secured.

I think it's kind of funny that I now have a 'cat' watching over my pretty fish.

Home Again

Yesterday's Scripture Reading: Breisheet (Genesis) 48-50

Today's Scripture Reading: Shemot (Exodus) 1-3

Had a nice flight home. Transformers was the in-flight movie, and this time I stayed awake and watched the whole thing. I kind of liked the Hoover Dam tie-in, but then they blew it by having the nearby town look nothing like any actual town nearby. The closest town to the Dam is Boulder City, and it doesn't have skyscrapers. Las Vegas is the nearest city with skyscrapers, but the town in the movie definitely was not Las Vegas. When the caravan left the Dam, the road footage looked like the Arizona side of the Dam, but the nearest town on that road is Kingman, which, like Boulder City, is a non-skyscraper town. Other than this discrepancy, the movie was enjoyable to watch and had some funny dialogue in places. The dog was cute.

Warning: The following is a rant.

Speaking of Las Vegas, I do not like McCarran Airport. It seems that no matter where I'm going, I end up having to go to the furthest gate in the most outlying terminal. Ditto when I return. And heaven help me if I have to go to the bathroom after exiting the plane (which is pretty much every time because I'm not a fan of the tiny airplane bathrooms). Stopping at a bathroom on the way to Baggage Claim usually means that my baggage will end up in the unclaimed baggage by the time I do get to Baggage Claim. It's always a race between me and those over-eager guys who take the bags off the carousel. All but once I've made it there in time to grab my bags before they haul them away, but it's always a breathless run to get there before my bags end up who-knows-where.

Add to this my phone ringing seemingly constantly during this breathless race to Baggage Claim as my husband keeps calling trying to figure out where he's supposed to go to pick us up because he's lost in the ever-changing McCarran Maze--the tangle of roads in and around the airport. On one visit to the airport, a certain lane will take you to Passenger Pick-up, but the next time you're there and try to take that lane, you end up in Long-Term Parking instead. It seems that every route to ANY destination in the airport requires multiple mad harrowing dashes across 3-4 lanes of traffic. The design and layout of McCarran is definitely worse than any other airport I've been to. Since it's such a popular tourist destination, you'd think they would have done a better job designing it.

A newly added irritant to the McCarran Airport experience that I noticed last night is that the $3 baggage carts have been replaced with ones that have no barrier sticking up at the front. In most airports, this is the place where there's a sign that says "Welcome to _______". The ones at McCarran used to say, "Welcome to Las Vegas", but now there is no place to attach the sign because the bar it used to attach to is not there on this new cart design. What this means in practical terms is that you can no longer line up your bags on the cart without fear of them sliding off the front end of the cart since the stopper bar thingy is completely absent. I wonder what genius thought of eliminating that feature and why?

In spite of the difficulties of traveling, the visit in Texas was well worth it, and being home safely again is also a wonderful blessing.

Shopping

Scripture Reading: Breisheet (Genesis) 45-47

We went out to lunch today and had Chinese food, which I never get unless I'm out without my husband because he doesn't like it. It was delicious! I had hot and sour soup and sweet and sour chicken.

We also went to Jo-Ann, which was kind of a disappointment. They didn't have the yarn I was looking for to finish the blue Jackyll and Hide, nor did they have the lace insets I needed to put the finishing touches on the Tulip Time baby dress and booties.

I did, however, get some new knitting magazines, so I'm happy!

Gone With The Wind

Yesterday's Scripture Reading:

Torah Portion: Chayei Sarah (Life Of Sarah)
Torah: Breisheet (Genesis) 23:1-25:18
Haftarah: Melakim Alef (1 Kings) 1:1-31
Ketuvim Netzarim: Mattithyahu (Matthew) 1:1-17; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57

Today's Scripture Reading: Breisheet (Genesis) 43-44

Yesterday was the birthday of one of my daughters. I was able to get a hold of her and wish her a Happy Birthday. We had had a long conversation a couple days before, and I got caught up on what's happening in her life these days. It's so amazing to me to see what wonderful people my babies have become as adults and the love they have for their children that echoes my love for them.

We had a restful Shabbat here at my parents' home enjoying everyone's company. Last night we discovered Gone With The Wind was on while surfing through the TV stations, so I stayed up late and watched it till the bitter end. I still love that movie! My husband makes fun of the poor acting, but for those days, I still think it was great, though I hate the way Ashley led Scarlett on for so many years. But she should have recognized what a weanie he was sooner anyway.

We had watched Meet The Robinsons earlier in the evening, and that was a cute computer-animated movie. One of my dad's caretakers brought it over with my daughter in mind. She also brought over the Transformers, but I fell asleep shortly into that one, so I'll have to see if I can try it again. By the way, not only does she do a great job taking care of my dad, but she's been fixing us some delicious meals as well.

I finished knitting the Jackyll & Hide in black for my 12-year-old son and got started on one in blue for my 7-year-old son. I talked to him on the phone last night, and he was so excited that I had started on his finally.

One of my little brothers is here visiting today, so I'm looking forward to having some fun with him.

Festival

Scripture Reading: Breisheet (Genesis) 41-42

We had a tiring, but wonderful day at the International Quilt Festival. All the quilts were unbelievable! I think our jaws were dropped almost constantly. It is amazing the talent and skill and creativity that was represented there. Thank you to all those whose work was exhibited for us to gawk at.

We saw pretty much all of the quilt displays, but we ran out of time and energy after seeing only 3 or 4 rows of the merchant booths. But I said I had to go to the Leisure Arts booth before we called it a day, and those were the friendliest ladies--the Leisure Arts gals! We had so much fun visiting with them.

The craft books published by Leisure Arts have always been my favorites, so of course I had to get more while I was there, and they had some great deals--everything 20% off plus some even more discounted specials. We all entered the drawing for the four baskets of goodies they were giving away.

Aside from not seeing absolutely everything, the only disappointment was that they had already run out of the commemorative pins, so I hope they're going to sell them online afterward or something. I did get the pretty commemorative tote bag, though, so I'm pacified for now.

The Holocaust Museum Houston had a display there. They have launched The Butterfly Project and are collecting handmade butterflies to remember the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. They can be made of any medium and no larger than 8 x 10 inches. I've found some great patterns online for crochet butterflies, so I'm going to try making some to send for the project.

If you'd like to participate, you can find more information here:

The Butterfly Project

Shabbat Shalom.

Wrong Night!

Scripture Reading: Breisheet (Genesis) 38-40

Okay, this must be evidence of aging. I checked, not once, but twice, on the website for the Quilt Festival, and STILL ended up writing down the wrong night. Preview Night was last night, not tonight. We got all the way downtown to the convention center only to discover the events were over for the day.

My stepmother was very gracious about my blunder, saying, "Well, at least we know where we're going and how to get down here, so we'll be all ready for it tomorrow." We also discovered that they have valet parking, so that's something to be thankful for.

In order for the evening not to be a total waste, we stopped at Sonic and got fountain treats--Yummy!

So, we're going to head to the festival tomorrow first thing, and this time I TRIPLE-checked the hours to be absolutely certain we'll be there at the right time.