Because it pays for itself-

DH has driven a 1999 Chevy Silverado around since the day he picked it up off the lot. It's got 175,000 miles on it, but looks and runs decently. Recently, I made him go to the dealership.

I'd been eyeing cars for weeks. Would DH accept an economical car? He'd come home and complain how much it cost to fill the truck, but would he really accept anything that wasn't a he-man truck?? That's a question akin to "will my dog accept the stray puppy on the side of the road?"

How come all these new cars don't have decent gas mileage? Why is there very little fuel savings between an 8 cyl Silverado and a 6 cyl? Or even the Colorado? Even the econoboxes don't get awesome mileage-for example the Nissan Versa gets 33mpg highway, and a 4 cylinder sedan (like the Chevy Malibu) gets 30mpg. I guess the 50 mpg is the reason folks are dusting off their Geo Metros aroung here.

The big ol' truck and many many miles a day, multiplied by gas prices - it made me cringe.

"I'm not ready to pay for another vehicle," DH declared.

"But honey, you are-every time you buy gas!"

Silence.

As it turns out, he liked the Chevy Malibu 4 banger, which is a highly rated family sedan. The fuel economy is significantly better than the truck, which we are keeping for a while. We won't have to play "When's the truck gonna crap out on us?" and I am glad about that.

This past week, he tracked his fuel usage and costs. He spent 70 dollars less on gas. It really will pay for itself.

Four-

Went to a gun show with DH today. Four is the number of people I saw with FINGERS ON TRIGGERS in the first hour. OMG, I just wanted to slap them, and a few of them were old enough to be draft eligible when I was little. Ah, see what draft dodging did? Made you STUPID!

I considered telling my single girlfriends to do something at a gun show to meet fellas-DH told me that was a bad idea. I saw a couple of pasty white guys with heavy backpacks on. He was probably right. Better that they stick to dog shows and the like.

Four is also the number of rows in my Queensland Tahiti stitch pattern-after I posted that photo yesterday, someone popped up and said their friend was having trouble with Tahiti biasing in stockinette. I went and looked, and sure enough, she did have trouble. I didn't notice any bias on mine, because I have 3 rows of stockinette, and one garter ridge (knit 1 row on the wrong side). The garter ridge apparently rights all the yarn karma, it's no trouble.

I'm working on 6s, which are 8s in every one else's world.

Summer fun!

I like this pattern for this yarn.

Every so often, I am sure my spouse is abducted by aliens-

Weird stuff comes out of his mouth!

We just got the uber deluxe mattress that the dog has to use the ottoman to get on (and we put it next to the bed) every night. Since we are moving, and since DH wants new everything, I figured new linens were in order. So I ordered bedspreads-one for us, and one for the guest room. They came in today. He didn't like either-and they are attractive. He said they looked too Holiday Inn! Let's hope I can afford return postage!

I ordered an extra bedspread for the MIL summer palace, and guess which one he wants?? I swear to GOD it's a test!!!

Everyone's doing it!

I paid Enid a visit. She was doing this cool Flickr Mosaic visual meme. I just had to try it out!
This is how it works:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food? Chocolate
3. What high school did you go to? Thomas B. Doherty
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? The Rock
6. Favorite drink? Diet Coke
7. Dream vacation? Mont Saint Michel
8. Favorite dessert? Angel Food Cake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Famous
10. What do you love most in life? Life
11. One word to describe you. Quirky
12. Your flickr name. Junior Goddess

Here's what I got:
A search for, the man of my dreams (the Rock) yielded a photo of my home town-I have climbed some of those formations. My Flickr name gave up the city where my Dad's cousin lives, and quirky yielded my dolls.


1. 3:49 Betsy McCall goes to School, 2. Untitled, 3. P3290638, 4. Northwest 3, 5. Main Garden, 6. Birthday Bomb, 7. Coucher de soleil sur le Mont St Michel, 8. Lemon Angel Food Cupcake, 9. Nasir-almolk, 10. yodell ♫ lay-od-lay-od-lay-he-hoo, ♫ lay-od-lay-od-low yodellay, ♫ yodallay, yodal-low… ♫ and they fly low supreme! ♫ little egrets from bali- egretta garzetta ♫, 11. Be-Heinz, 12. HISTORY OF THE QUEEN'S HEAD PUBLIC HOUSE

We're kinda slow...

But we mean well.

Today, DH and I went out for a quick 9 holes of golf. Ok, maybe I wasn't QUICK, maybe I am freaking slow, progressing at the rate of 75 yards per swing. Ah well.

We finished up, and I happened to look at the flag pole. "Gee, honey, that flag looks terrible!" "Yeah, I noticed it when I came out here yesterday." He paused for a minute, and said "You know, we have that flag BB sent. We could go grab it, and swap them out."

So we did. On our way back to the golf course, I told DH "You know, he must have won this in a quarterly award or something." Holy crap, I felt terrible for not understanding that earlier. My daughter's ex-boyfriend's little brother won a military award, and sent it to us, and I didn't SEE that. How stupid of me.

We swapped out flags quickly and with decorum. The old flag was so tattered, I cased it while DH hoisted the first one. There was no danger of it sweeping the ground. The golf course cashier kept saying how sweet we were. We weren't sweet. We just happened to have a flag that a 22 year old kid sent us from the Horn of Africa. How lucky we are to know him. DH said "I got to play a round of golf, and we did the flag thing. This is the best 4th ever!"

I totally agree.

one in twenty-five-

I was at Elann's chat a few weeks back, and Amy recommended The Sociopath Next Door. I just HAD to read that one! The book's main premise is that four percent of the population act without conscience. This explains a lot. Some earmarks of behavior include:

1) failure to conform to social norms

2) deceitfulness, manipulativeness

3) impulsivity

4) irritability, aggressiveness

5) reckless disregard for the safety of self and others

6) consistent irresponsibility

7) lack of remorse after having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person

Of course, I am all those things when I have PMS. Yeah well, it's true. (Only kind of kidding.) Stout gives examples of a sociopath's types of behaviors and types of motivation. The book is not a pleasurable read, but it is a very interesting one.

I know I have a least one sociopathic character in my life, and upon reflection, there are several I've known that just stood out as "not right." Interestingly enough, Joey Buttafuco's wife (remember her, she was the one who was shot by his teenaged girlfriend) was on TV last week, promoting a book she wrote. She finally came to the conclusion that HE was a sociopath, and she needed to divorce him. (Took her long enough to figure THAT out.) Good girl.

Anyhow, the book also outlines some self defense strategies for dealing with sociopaths-

1) The first rule involves the bitter pill of accepting that some people literally have no consience.

2) In a contest between your instincts and what is implied by the role a person has taken on-educator, doctor, leader, animal lover, humanist, parent-go with your instincts.

3) When considera a new relationship of any kind, practice the Rule of Threes regarding the claims and promises a person makes, and the responsibilities he of she has. (three lies, broken promises, or neglected responsibilities indicate you are dealing with a liar. Deceit is the lynchpin of consciencelessness.) So cut your losses and move on.

4) Question authority. Stout points out it's easier to behave badly when people are lumped into groups. "They" are easier to villanize.

5) Suspect flattery.

6) If necessary, redefine your concept of respect. Fear is not respect.

7) Do not join the game.

8) The best was to protect yourself from a sociopath is to avoid him, to refuse any kind of contact or communication.

9) Question your tendency to pity too easily. (raises hand guiltily)

10) Do not try to redeem the unredeemable.

11) Never agree, out of pity or for any other reason, to help a sociopath conceal his or her true character.

12) Defend your psysche.

13) Living well is the best revenge.

I wish I had known these things 10 years ago. My life would have been much simpler. But having read them, and written them down (that was just as much for me as it was you, dear reader), I will be more likely to remember them.

It is kind of a relief to know that I didn't do anything that caused certain events.

BTW, the sampler square background is Two Color Star Stitch, from the red Barbara. I think this is an excellent stitch to break up multi-colored pooling.

Tales of the New Economy-If it sounds to good to be true

you must be paying with cash.

DH and I went out to Sears today to look for a mattress. Ours can vote in the next election, so we figured it was time. Sears was having a huge sale, so we flopped on a few beds, and I did a little price checking.

We left the mall because the refrigerator lady was stalking DH. We hopped in the car, and drove down the road to the mattress store. Have you noticed that these are really common? We have 4 mattress stores (same company) on a 15 mile stretch of the same street. We walked in, found a few things that we liked, and started playing price footsie. The salesman found out we didn't require any financing (we were shopping on the finance side of town) and proposed a deal-

Take the mattress and box spring (an as-is floor model deal) that goes for about 1500.00. He'd sell it to us at HIS price-that is manufacturer's price, and his discount, or about 850.00. And since he'd help us out, he wanted us to help him out with a little barter transaction. Then he started taking bids on his "commission." He asked what it would be worth. I wouldn't say, because I wanted to see what he had in mind (my first thought was 175.00 or about 20%).

I consider myself a crappy bargainer. I never get those "whale of a deals." I was stumped. He decided that since most ATMs will let you take a maximum of 300.00 out, that's what he wanted. Then I offered up my 175.00. No dice. 200.00? "Not worth my time."

There was too much madness flying thru the air. I couldn't see the loophole, and I knew there had to be one. I try not to make purchases in that kind of situation, because I will usually get screwed. DH is not a shopper and he wasn't even looking for the bait and switch. We got in the car, and I tried to puzzle it out in my head. I could pay by credit card for the mattress, but not for his commission. That meant the corporate office was getting paid 1/2 off for that mattress and the transaction would appear normal. "It's not worth my time." Wha??

So we drove to two more of the company stores. Funny, 'our' style wasn't a floor model close-out at either of the other two stores. Then, we found a better deal on a better mattress, the mattress cover (it's bed-wetter proof, in case we ever need that feature), delivered. The previous "on the sly" deal would have been more.

It took me a longggg time to figure it out. He really offered up his employee discount so we could buy a mattress and have it delivered to ourselves! Or possibly to himself! I wonder how he intended to write it up?

Lookie!

Ok, I am not smart enough to manage a screen shot, so it's a good thing Marie hooked me up. Look at THIS!

Knitting content resumes-

Ahhh. I got my books in from China last week. I slogged several armloads down to the post office, and flung them hither and yon. I glanced at mine today.

Several of them seem to be rehash books of patterns already flung out in knitting land. Some were European, some were Japanese. Ah, well, I can figure them out. I haven't sat down with the pattern drafting book-that will require a lot of concentration.

I can't read Chinese at all. When I was a little girl, my mom brought an origami book home with paper. Totally in Japanese. I learned a lot following pictures VERY closely. I was probably quiet as a mouse for an entire weekend. I think the drafting book with require the same level of attention.

The stitch dictionaries---OMG. Ok, there aren't really 5101 knitting stitches in there. Maybe 35% are crochet, and another 25% are intarsia and fair isle, and I am pretty sure that some stitches in book A are probably in book B (they are indiscriminate about copying-I found several patterns duplicated in a mega-sweater journal) and there are a lot of things I have seen in the Harmonys and the Barbaras. But feast your eyes on this. It might be in an Oma's, and it might be in a Strick Bauern (sp?) but yee-haw, it jumped right off the page at me. Not a single M-Fin' KEY in either book, so I guess I will be trying to figure these out. There's a lot of pretty, and a lot of pretty different in them.

I've been tagged!

Ok, it's time for my meme. I have a max of two a year, and Cindy just tagged me for one.

Here are the rules:

• Answer at least three of the questions. Yes, I know a few look time-consuming and there are several of them. That's why I only ask for three. See?



• Post them and the rules on your blog, and please link back to here.



• Comment here telling me and the rest of our little party where you're at and link to yourself.That's all!*



• Oh yeah, don't forget to tag others!

What's the last book you read that you thought was really super, inspiring, you'd recommend it to most anyone? The Kite Runner. The book, not the movie. The movie is ok. The book is fabulous.


What food totally grosses you out, you'd never be able to touch it? Ew. Gag. *hurl* Stuff with eyeballs. Or innards.

Did you ever watch a scary movie that frightened you so much you were afraid of the dark afterward? I mean like you're lying in bed trying to sleep, but you have to pee, but you're scared to get up. It doesn't have to be recently; could be when you were a kid. So what movie was it? Thankfully, I am really nearsighted, and learned at a young age to peer over the top of my glasses. In adulthood, I won't watch movies with a Satanic slant, because in my mind, they are theoretically possible.

Is there a song that makes you dance every time you hear it? Would you tap you feet and sing along to it in public? Just about anything by the Cure does that. Or Eurythmics' "There Must be an Angel".

Do you have any? Tell us! Do you think they're gross? TELL US! Yes. Self-inflicted in about 1974, the size of a dime. Thinking about getting one for my next milestone birthday.

When's the last time you laughed so hard your ribs ached and/or you nearly peed yourself? That's a frequent occurence in my world, but I would have to say "Benny Lava" on Youtube did it.


Draw or doodle a picture of your pet(s) and post it if possible. Nothing fancy, don't be shy! The Suggylicious one posed for her close-up



Go through a stack or box of your old music. Stuff that you may not have heard in years. Pick one and tell us about it. Is it as good (or as bad) as you remember? I think as good. It's Gianna Nannini from about 1988. If you want to see BAD, try this Sinitta medley from the 80s. She had a career when she dated Simon Cowell. The relationship ended and so did her career. Imagine that.

So I'll tag Libby, Suzann, and Ghislane, because she tagged me last year and I wasn't playing at the time.

Yipe yipe yipe!!!

I'm worried that the State of Texas screwed the pooch on the FLDS Eldorado case. There was a two hour expose on the tube tonight, and it raised more questions than it answered. For example-

-Why did they scatter the children throughout the state and separate them from their mothers and siblings? Why NOT just kick the men out of the compound? That would make sense, but part of me suspects that perhaps Child Protective Services needs the extra manpower funding. I'm worried that they've snatched the kids away and NOT done their homework; they'll be sued, and we will have to foot that bill. I am practically betting on that, thanks.

-I know that there is a big hue and cry about young girls and underaged sex. The law used to say you could get married in this state at 14 as long as you had parental consent; I believe the current marriageable age is 16 with consent. (Like a FLDS parent would refuse.) That's not as strong a foothold as anyone might think.

-School-I thought they had to go or be schooled to a minimum standard in this state. So why isn't anyone looking at THAT? That might actually work, you know.

-Food stamps-I got pissed when I found out that since polygamy is not recognized as marriage, most of the women are considered single mothers, and they are eligible for public assistance. That pisses me off. THAT we need to fix.

-No one's been arrested. Has anyone actually done anything illegal (aside from polygamy, legal welfare fraud of sorts, and not educating to the state's minimum)?

There are no do-overs on this one. As much as I dislike some of the sect's practices, I am worried that the court will have to let everyone go. Al Capone went to jail for tax fraud. Texas needs to keep that in mind.

Tuning up the banjos to play Deliverance

It's a wonder we all have our damned teeth. I just got back from my brother's wedding in Phoenix. His third, her second. She apparently decided to let her high school aged daughters pick out the attendant dresses. They looked really silly next to the white linen hula style shirts the guys wore.

Above, you see all the subsequent generations of our family. Fred's girls in the taffeta, and mine in prints. What you can't see...the gorgeous brunette in the center of the photo has a brand new tattoo the size of half an orange on her shoulder-it matches her dress. (It's the stylized wisteria wreath in my header, my mom's family crest) Her sister (left) has a new one going down her spine...it says "twin" in Chinese. My little brother got one too; he also got my mom's wreath on his back, slightly bigger than Nessie's.

Me? No tattoo, but it's something to think about. I made a wisteria wreath to take to the cemetary, so I gave everyone the idea. Guh-reat.

A little love-

Cindy (from Baxter Knits, in my sidebar) pops in every so often, and I pop in at her blog every so often too. Now, she's never said anything to ME about this, but I did notice this picture in her sidebar. Wow, really? How can you NOT shout from the rooftops every time you see THAT?

Not that I wanna be a suck up or anything, but I was in Hobby Lobby the other day. I noticed it, saw her name, and smiled! Figured I'd show her some love. This is a pretty good sock book. Couple of toes, couple of heels, 2 circs, 1 circ. You could totally gift this book, needles and yarn.

Last week, I hit upon a sale on Hanne Falkenberg's Mermaid, so I snagged it. The good news? It was 125.00 and included all the yarn. The bad news? Coral, orange and tomato red. Which, on paper, sounded possible, if a bit dicey. Well it came in yesterday (and DH was HOME after a doctor visit) and it is a great kit, but the colors aren't for me. I have to replace at least one of them. The tomato red is almost rust, so I have to replace it or the orange (two balls of either color). Or maybe both. It's a nice sheepy wool (2/9) and I think this will be fun, but I really must turn down the warmth somewhere.

I have to go to Phoenix for the wedding from hell tomorrow. My older brother is getting married Saturday. It's his third wife. They are making my 23 year old nieces wear taffetta. (eyes cross, makes gagging face.)

Tyarnasaurus Bets!

Most people's armspan is equal to their height. I thought this was a wive's tale, but no, some doctors studied it. I checked mine once for the hell of it. Mine is significantly (about 3") shorter!

Anyhow, DH took me golfing, and made fun of my swing. He said I golfed like Tyrannosaurus Rex! I poked him in the kidneys and ran off to get my knitting. I held up my hands to show him how well T-Rex could knit! He started laughing REALLY hard!

Physiologically, I am REALLY WELL SUITED to knitting.

Cheers to Ghislaine for making my new avatar!

Stick a fork in 'em!

Holy schmoly! They all hatched at once! As un-worldly, un-fun, un-anything as it may be, do I just buy gas cards? I think that's what I am going to do-50.00 gas cards all around. Sounds like more than it is, really, but 50 bucks is, at the end of it all, 50 bucks.

If one of these is my godson's sibling, can I drop 50 on sibling this year, and 100 on him next year? Oh torture! I need gift-iquitte for grads! Help!

Weird though. I remember Bri's mom coming on a trip to Brindisi with me. "I'm pregnant, Bets!" I made a blankie for Sam when Sam was in the oven!! And why do all these girls have BOY names??

Fun stuff for Friday

It's TOTALLY Melanie's fault. This video was mentioned on Ravelry's MCY thread. She mentioned it on her blog, and I started giggling and can't stop.



Please God, make my hair sizzle when I toss it over my shoulder. For THAT, I would even vote the entire Democratic ticket.

Why do you have to turn off Food Network?

I beg your indulgence for just a few days more. I am coming to the end of a project which must not be named. It's been harrasstabating (a funny little word I picked up on Ravelry). Soon, I will be back to knitting hijinks.

While slogging thru this THING, I have, of course, been watching a lot of TV. I've been watching a lot of Ni Hao, Kai-lan (I can count to 3 in Mandarin!!) and reruns of this and that. The other day, Bobby Flay's challenge was the Puffy Taco Throwdown in San Antonio. I watched for a bit, remembering how the food section of the paper excitedly covered the filming two summers ago. I watched for a little bit longer, and then I realized Diana Barrios Trevino was Diana Barrios Trevino. And the little abuelita standing next to her was Viola Barrios.

The camera panned over the family and their bustling restaurant business Viola started many years ago. Then, I had to change the channel. Viola Barrios was killed in her home just a few weeks ago by a stupid punk neighbor kid during a robbery. The crime rocked the city.

Read some of the recipes from Los Barrios here.

591.69

In December, we stopped smoking. I quit on the day after Christmas, DH, about a week or so before. We did it with Chantix.

Taxes played a role in my decision to quit. I suspected they were quite high. Single packs of cigarrettes average between 4.29-4.99 at my local Stop&Rob, and come it at 39.00-49.00 per carton. When I went to China, I looked at the Marlboro ads in Duty Free.

$27.00.

I was tired of bearing the burden of everyone's failed school budget, but no smoker really wants to quit. The impulse is woven like burrs into a dog's coat-after a few years, smokers are enmeshed.

Chantix changed all of that. I felt a reduced urge to smoke with the very first pill I took. But I also felt something else.

I was despondent. Once I figured out that Chantix blocked all my happy receptors, I checked with another Chantix taker. She reported that at her house "they were afraid of me". Oh! Well, ok. I don't think this drug will be on the market too long. But, since it actually worked, I knew that I had to do my part. DH and I both quit. Concurrently.

And no one died, tho we did have to buy bigger pants. That 591.69? That's my saving since the beginning of the year. TRIPLE it for the household savings. This year, that will amount to over 5300.00. That's a lot.

Wonder if they'll decide to tax beer now.

What the hell is WRONG with people??

I shop by mail a lot. So often, in fact, that if there is a way to get it wrong, someone will do it on my order. Do you remember these little darlings? I ordered them earlier in the month. Let's just say I cancelled a very large order from Smartbargains.com because of their blind inability to process and ship an order. I've reordered them from here. Wish me luck.

In the same vein, I ordered some clothing from Land's End for an upcoming trip to Phoenix. It's an everything zen trip, where I get to go to my older brother's wedding. Eye rolling all over the place. He's 50 and his fiance is pregnant. It's wife number THREE. They are registered at a 'buy us a honeymoon' type place. They wanna go to the US Virgin Islands. Now, that kind of trip is fine for some people, but I distinctly remember my dad scooping him outta bed during 'dark time' so they could go catch a flight with the famous Flying Tigers. I think that trip idea is utterly boring, and not worthy of a kid who practically grew up at O'Hare. But I still need to look 'recenta' in the land of "Damn, it's hot."

Now, Land's End is know for conservative clothing. I ordered a few skorts, thinking, well, that model is probably 5'10", I'm 5'4", the length will be fine. I was wrong. They were chach monster skorts. Wax skorts. Seriously, I tried one on and thought-'I can't go to the grocery in this!!! I'll put someone's eye out!' Picture a pair of running shorts. THAT's how long they weren't.

The order that came in properly? Sequined Nanette Lepore Keds. 70% off. Now we're talking.