The Olympic knitting project that did not get a metal

Remember way back when, when the Olympics started I signed up to knit a sweater? Seems so long ago, so long ago that you would think I would have worn my sweater all over town already. Well, the sweater had been all over town, and in surrounding towns but instead of on my body is has been riding around in my knitting bag. By the time the Olympics were over I had one sleeve.....one sleeve does not a sweater make. Today the sweater is completed but is still hanging out in my knitting bag (it likes it there, it feels safe there) It seems I will be frogging it (unraveling) and it is all my fault, cannot blame the pattern or the wool this time. The front and the back is knit separately flat until you get to the armpits, and from there you join it and knit in the round. When I knit in the round for some reason I knit tighter and somehow my stitches get slanted, when I noticed my tight stitches I eased up and thought when  I would block it they would all blend in together and not be noticed. This is not the case, there is a very distinctive line where I started knitting in the round and it is right across my boobs and it looks awful, and must be frogged. I will frog it to the armpits and start all over with a looser stitch. I'm procrastinating because right now I can say my sweater is done, I like saying that.

In Memory of............

As you know I have been staying at my friend's house since returning from Mexico, but I am home now. I moved back home this weekend and am once again reorganizing my life. Before I get into all that I do have some show and tell. I did write about it very briefly a while back, I was cutting up my friend's deceased husbands clothes and making memory quilts for the kids. I have completed 2 queen size guilts and my friend made herself one as well, it was great therapy for her and if there is anyone out there who has lost a loved one this is an amazing thing to do to carry on his/her memory forever. These kids will have these quilts forever. As the quilts kept getting bigger and bigger I was a bit disappointed that they were so big, I figured they would get to big and heavy for little kids to carry and pack around but now that they are done I am glad because they will never grow out of them, they are queen size and they can even use them as they become adults. The kids love them, one of  them made a comment that it is like cuddling with dad. Well worth all the work, probably the most treasured and worthwhile thing I have ever made. Both quilts have identical pieces in them but are sewn  together differently. I made sure to include some buttons, pockets and tags so that it would never be forgotten that these were dads clothes, even included his painting shirts. The pictures are a bit blurry I thought my camera was having a fit but a few days later I discovered that I had just accidently had it set to some weird setting. For some reason I don't have pictures of the 3rd quilt, I'll make sure I'll add it later. There are still heaps of bits and pieces and my friend and we plan on make potholders for each of his sisters, hopefully this week yet. 

olympic knitting

February 19, 2010

I am one of the 3000 people from around the world that signed up for Olympic knitting. Crazy....I know. The rule is you cast on a knitting project on the day the Olympic started and you are to be done by the time the games end. The project is to bew a project that would challange you but “not ruin your life”. Of course I always go way over board (which is why I can never go on a cruise) so I choose to knit a sweater....a whole sweater. Not just any ol’ sweater, a sweater that I have been drooling over for a long while and one that I would love to actually wear. Yes I know this is me who can never knit anything other that scarfs and shawls because nothing ever fits when I am done. 

I can always hope that this time will be different, I know I will not be able to blame the wool this time, I have perfect wool. It’s a very amazing baby alpaca just like the designer used in her pattern. You may also drool over it here if you're interested. http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall08/PATTcamden.html
 Of course time is not my friend either, the silly Olympics are only 17 days longs.....yikes. So far I almost have one sleeve done...almost. I should have rented a cabin in the woods somewhere and took only my knitting with me.....I could still see me daydreaming away 17 days. 

Out with the plastic!

February 19, 2010

Since reading Kevin Trudeau’s book I have been slowly making some changes to my life. I plan on living a more natural life, which hopefully ends up being a simpler life and I am hoping that the end result of simpler will be less stressful and more freeing. Right now I am trying to get rid of the plastic in my life, not all plastic as that would be very very difficult but just the plastic in my kitchen. Food stored and heated in plastic containers absorbs toxic chemicals and end up in your body, this is not new news to me, I’ve heard of it for many years but I just never took it seriously which seems so ridicules to me now. If you’re already told its toxic why keep eating it? Probably the same reason I smoked for many years even knowing how bad it was, same reason why I used to speed in my car even though I knew “speed kills”.......and what reason is that you ask? I have no idea, all I know is that I don’t smoke anymore, I don’t speed anymore (hardly ever) and I don’t want to eat toxic chemicals anymore. So I have been hunting for glass containers with nice lids, it seems Pyrex is the best choice but those guys really value their product and are a bit pricey for this cheap gal, plus I know I’m going to break at least one a week transporting them back and forth to work everyday, and probably break at least one more a week washing them, this could be a very costly endeavour. I have gotten together some fabric that I plan on sewing into little baggies ( no more Ziploc...yikes) to pack veggies and fruit to take to work and maybe even things like muffins and cookies. This does create a problem for me in the grocery store as well, some of my favourite foods are sold in plastic container or plastic wrappers, like cottage cheese, cheese (love cheese) crackers, and of course potato chips. Not to sure how I am going to deal with this, I have found a source to get homemade butter, whole milk and cream and farm eggs. I guess I could make my own cottage cheese and cheese, I haven’t looked into how complicated that process is. Potato chips I could also make....or could just go without (yikes...not likely). I think these are the only items that would really pose a problem for me...off the top of my head just now anyway. Living in Mexico during the winters has already taught me that is is possible to live without all the packaged and processed food, a little harder here that it is there but totally doable. Over the last few years I have slowly weaned myself off of most processed foods....I do fall off that wagon once in awhile but for the most part I can stay away from it. Of course it helps that I live alone and don’t have small children. I’m not sure I could have done this when my child was small, although I feel bad now when I think back on the bad food I feed that child sometimes. I think she took pizza pops to school everyday for about 7 years....how horrible is that? Oh well, we cannot go back and change we can only change and go forward. 

Home Sweet Home?

January 31.2010

I arrived back in Canada without incident, it was not the joyous homecoming that I usually have as I had a funeral to go to first thing. Since then I have been living with my friend and her kids in their home out in the country. (Without internet) I just realized today that I haven’t really allowed myself to enjoy the benefits of country living, I’ve been so busy I hadn’t even noticed the peacefulness and the quiet, I haven’t once gone for a walk to enjoy the sound of squirrels and birds.....I saw a squirrel out the window once and there must be birds, also saw a fox one day out the window. Most of my time is spent in the basement which is dark and cold like all basements are...hidden from the world it seems, but in this basement there is a special project happening. I am cutting up all my friend’s deceased husbands’ shirts and pants and am making each of the kids a blanket with them. I have cut everything into 7 3/8 squares and then into triangles and am now piecing them together. I have enough triangles to make 2 twin sized blankets and I think there is enough odds and ends pieces to make another blanket for my friend in crazy quilt style. .... She sure did love buying shirts for her husband. I am very excited about this, I made sure I included pieces of shirt pockets and the strips that have the buttons on them because I don’t want it ever to be forgotten that these are his shirts and pants. What makes it even more unique is that he was a painter and every once in a while there is a piece of fabric that has paint splatters on it....it’s who he was and I wanted that to show in the blanket. I will post pictures as soon as I have one blanket top finished, right now it’s just a pile of squares.

The weather has fluctuated from bitterly cold to a little less cold and even to just a regular kind of cold, but just mostly cold. It is shocking that we survive in this and actually even think it normal. I have often tried to explain to my southern friend what it is like when it is -40C, after the thermometer hits -30C it really all feels the same. I think the saving grace to weather like this is the sun, it will usually be very sunny and bright on these cold days which makes it seem not so miserable. If you are inside looking out the window it looks like a beautiful bright sunny day, the trees are all frosted up and are just glistening and shimmering in the sun..... a gorgeous day until you step outside to start your car in the morning, which you plugged in the night before or else it would not start, everyone here has the sickening experience of going out to start the car just have it make a very sickening whining sound. It is so sickening because it sound like the car will die right there and never ever work again and also because you know you should have plugged it in and you want to just bang your head up against the steering wheel to punish yourself for being so stupid....it’s the same feeling you get when you lock your keys in the car....ever done that? Once started you leave it running for at least a half hour and after that it depend on how much gas you feel you have to spare, it doesn’t seem to matter how long it runs it will still be cold when you get in. Letting the car run is not to benefit you but the car, it lets the engine slowly warm up so that it doesn’t go into cardiac arrest when you hit the road. Even though the engine is finally warm and ready to go the rest of the car is still a frozen block of ice...especially the wheels, imagine your tires as being square, that is exactly how your car feels as you drive to work...thung thung thung thung.......thung thung thung thung....as you are driving off you shake your head and wonder again as to why you are living here...no one is forcing you (I hope) is this by choice? Did I choose this? There are places in the world where you don’t need to go through all this......all the way to work I used to wonder “why am I here, what is keeping me here?”  You don’t just have to get yourself to work, 8 hours later you now have to start your car again to get yourself home....same frozen process, unless it has miraculously warmed up suddenly. I did discover 2 years ago that it is possible for me to work here during the summer and spend the winter in Mexico....and that is what I work for now. I am not sure what I used to work for years ago, just because I had to I guess. I never had any particular goal in mind....just going to work everyday like everyone else. Now that I am working so that I can spend the winter in Mexico it makes going to work more enjoyable, it makes putting money in my savings account fun...yes down right fun, it’s like a game now....how much can I squirrel away? How can I cut my cost living here more and more each year? As I started cutting my cost of living more and more I soon realized that life became simpler and simpler, I slowly started decluttering my life...”stuff” became less and less important. I started valuing my old things more because I wanted them to last forever now,  

I try to take better care of my clothes now because I don’t want to replace them, I make sure I don’t lose stuff, like the roll of tape, postage stamps....and other little things that used to send me running to store to just buy another one. I no longer forget that I have a head of lettuce in the crisper or find a box of half eaten stale crackers in the back of the cupboard. It’s easier to keep track of stuff in your house if you only bring in the stuff that you need. Even though I have made great headway in saving money and decluttering I do still have some vices that keep my saving account from reaching it’s absolute max, I love buying books, wool, fabric and I have a whole room of scrapbooking supplies that I haven’t touched in about 2 years. I spend a lot of money on a greenhouse and on building garden beds that I tell myself will pay for it’s self in time. So I am not totally cheap.....yet, but I am slowly getting there.

The last day

My last day here was rather tiring. I ran around and returned some borrowed things, farmed out my plants that were in pots, the ones in the ground are donated to the iguanas I guess. A friend took my pot of cucumbers and dill, I figure with some love and protection from iguanas the cucumber should come back since just the tops were  munched off. I was supposed to teach her how to make pickles, you can't buy pickles here and someone had once given her a jar from the US and she absolutely loved them. I told her I would help her make them but now I am leaving before there is any dill or baby cucumbers. She has e-mail and as soon as she has a crop of dill and little cuks I will send her step by step instructions...any monkey can make a pickle.
Also did a bunch of laundry and packed up my house, tomorrow it all gets put in storage again, my little pile of storage gets bigger every year, this year I am even leaving my pjs behind, and some books I had brought and not read yet. I visited the painter guy and dismantled my painting that isn't really a painting yet, I debated leaving it here but I think I will have time to finish it this time as I am not scheduled back to work until golf season...about mid April. Painter guy and  his wife are very friendly and I ended up chatting for quite some time. As I walk back to my house (on Pony Lane), and dodge horse poo poo I think of how I am going to miss gathering poo each morning, but then again...I won't need poo and more. I also finished the Tiffany neck warmer and it curls on both edges making it look rather ... well, not nice, I was not happy. It was curling while I was knitting but I thought blocking would help but it did not, so now it is not giftable. I had started the second one but I frogged it real quick and cast on for a Baktus ( picture is a few posts ago) Of course it will not be done in time for gifting..oh well, it will be my plane knitting. I have 5 hours so I am carrying on enough yarn to make 2 (I'm always over ambitious) and besides, what if we have delays and I run out of yarn...yikes.
A friend came over and get this! She lent me a set of sheets so that I don't have to pack away my sheets after using them one night (I washed them today) So, when I get here next time my sheets will be perfectly clean, not even used one night. Isn't that awesome...people are so great. Since I had packed up all my dishes and still had a can of tuna left I had tuna, tostadas and a tomato and an avocado for supper, shortly after the tamale lady came by....it is Thursday is it not?...she's not due until Saturday, I had canned tuna for supper when I could have had tamales one last time. Ey yi yi. My land lady came over and we had a good visit, I feel bad for her, she has such a heavy load. She lost her husband 2 years ago and has 4 children, she is the same age as I am and I just can't imagine being in her shoes, all  I can do is just listen to her and pray for her.
I had people popping by all day, I had planned on just laying in my hammock for most of the afternoon but I didn't get a chance....used it to dry some laundry on when I ran out of lineOne lady came by to invite me to supper but I had to decline because another friend was going to come by around that time for tea, so she says "oh, you'll need something to serve with your tea" and she runs home and comes back with a plate of tarts...people are so great. When I get home I am going to try to pay more attention to my neighbors and try to lend and hand....and have tarts on hand. I am always willing to help when someone asks for help but I don't' seem to notice on my own when I could do something for someone, I'm just not a very thoughtful person. I never have a gift on hand or tarts....I'm going to stock up of gifts and tarts when I get home....maybe my Baktus scarf will turn out better than the Tiffany warmer, it would be a nice gift....with some tarts, you think? 

I'm going to leave you today the same way the day left me, with an amazing sunset. 

A little scary, a little ironic and a little epic

So there is another little bit of ugly news and I was debating about sharing this one as well, at first I decided not too and just posted this story without it but now have decided that I will share it. It may help someone else. It's a long story that starts with my uterus and ends with whip cream so grab a cup of tea or cast on for the Tiffany neck warmer (it's mindless knitting) I went to the the doctors here to see if I have arthritis or osteoporosis, my phsio therapists at home mentioned that it is possible that that could be why I have so many back, joint and muscle problems that just don't seem to go away. So I see a dcotor here that came highly recommenced by some of my local snow bird friends here, he is Mexican and he speaks English. I walk in his office without an appointment and see him within the hour, I tell him all my woes and troubles and he sends me around the corner to a lab for some blood and urine tests. From there I go for a pedicure and when I come back I have my results, (and I now have pretty toes)  I head back to the doctor and he sees me right away and we go over my results. I do not have arthritis or osteoporosis but my urine tests show that I am bleeding from the inside, we are both rather surprised about this, so now he asked me when I last had my periods and I tell him 10 years ago....now he is surprised. So I have to fill him in on my little saga that happened 10 years ago. I had some cancer cells removed from my cervical canal which was not to be a big deal, there were at stage 2 which is not too serious and could just be scraped away from the canal. 8 weeks later the doctor wanted to do a check to make sure he got it all and discovered that the canal had healed itself shut, it was now just one ball of tissue, no longer and canal and so no blood could get through, he tried a few different things to open it up but nothing worked. There were 2 options now for me, take the uterus out or take a drug called Depo provera which would just stop my periods completely. It is a drug commonly used for birth control. The doctor advised me not to have my uterus taken out unless I experienced problems with this drug, taking the uterus was to be a last resort. I must admit I was rather pleased at the thought of never having my periods again. And so 10 years have passed with me never experiencing any problems .... or so I thought. The doctor here listen to my story and his eyes kept getting bigger and bigger, he could not believe that a doctor would put me on this for 10 years. They do not use this drug here (that he was aware of) because of all the side effects. He says it is not a drug meant to be used longer than 3 months. In the last 10 years I had read about some new studies that had been done on this drug and had voiced some concerns to my doctors a few times but each time was told not to worry. The biggest thing was loss of bone density and back spasms (hello!) The last fews years my back has a spaz if I sneeze the wrong way or if I don't give it enough warning that I am going to bend over to put my shoe on. So he send me to another clinic for bone density tests right away and in 1/2 hour my results were ready.....I was not, I was having lunch with a friend up the street. So back to his office to go over my results and we find that I have Osteopenia in my spine which is just a step below Osteoporosis, my hips and pelvis were just borderline, this was better news than we thought we would get. If this bloody inflamed uterus comes out and I stop taking this poison (what he calls it) and stay active and eat healthy (teeheee) my bone density should catch up to my age without any supplements or drugs. Right now my bones are a bit older than I am ..... I didn't really need a test to tell me that. For now he gave me some Calcium and some anti-inflammatory pills to take until I can make arrangements to have the uterus out. The reason I am sharing all this is because I am a bit scared, I know it is a standard operation but I like all my body parts and especially the women parts, I didn't mind giving up my gallbladder years ago because it's just an ordinary body part that everyone has, but the women parts are what sets us part and makes us who we are and has always made me feel a bit special I guess, so it does worry me a little. I like my uterus, it worked very well for me when I was pregnant and even thought I don't have much use for it now I hate to see it go...weird I am. I went on line and tried to find some information but could only find medical information, all about the procedure and what to expect but it would have been nice if I could have found a place where women that had this done talked about their experiences...I'm sure this site exists, I just didn't find it yet. So I will share my experience here in very blatant terms that we all can understand. I do not want this blog to become the uterus blog site but I will keep you all posted as things progress. If I had it done here I would already be telling you how it went, doctor was ready to do it yesterday, that's how fast things work here in the medical industry but since I am getting it done in Canada it will drag out for months I'm sure.....no, I will not bore you all about it for months, I will skip all the red tape blah blah and just report on the actual procedure and anything noteworthy afterwards,(all the blah blah is saved for facebook) I am using this bone density thing as an excuse to add just a wee bit more cream to my cappuccino and maybe eat more ice-cream and find something to put whip cream on, I don't like cake (I know wierdo) but I love whip cream but what to put it on?

By the way;

The iguanas ate a whole row of dill that was only and inch high and ate a row of melon that had just poked out of the ground...grazed it right down to the dirt. I were to stay here I would have to build cages out of fish netting but at this point I am just giving it up.

To blog it or not to blog it

 I'm heading home on Friday the 8th. I've been debating about how I would blog about this or if I should at all but it seems that I really need to otherwise I would just take you from my hammock to the icy cold chilly north within 5 hours and you would all wonder how we got there and why. I won't go into too much detail because that would mean getting really personal with some else's life, someone that hasn't agreed to share her life on line. I have a dear dear friend that just lost her husband yesterday after a short tough fight with cancer and I am heading home to be with her during this hard time. I don't plan on coming back until next year, possible November or December someone time.....that's actually not even next year, that is this year. And so I am spending my last days here getting together with friends one last time. Went into Mazatlan yesterday and had lunch with a friend and now it seems the whole Island wants me to come to their house for supper before I leave.....I don't have that many suppers left. I figured I would have to eat out every night because I already gave back my borrowed pan and pot so now I can't cook anything.....seems I need not worry about supper. I did boil a potato and carrot in 2 little metal cups last night....I love my favorite potato dinner. I am frantically knitting a Tiffany neck warmer for a friend here....was hoping to make 2 but that might not happen.

http://theyarniad.blogspot.com/2009/08/patternum-gratis-tiffany-neckwarmer.html

 

Just Something I've Noticed

January 02, 2009

In the years past that I have been here and this year again I have noticed something very interesting. Very often I will see older kids walking somewhere holding their younger brother or sister's hand, or I will see a teenager walking arm in arm with who appears to be the grandma or grandpa and of course grandma's and grandpa's with their grand kids. It seems the different ages mix and mingle more here than at home. I see them together in the markets, see them walking on the street, sitting together on the front step of their homes or on park benches. Maybe I just don't see it at home because we are in cars, and in out homes, our lives are not exposed as much because we have walls and windows with curtains and blinds and we don't just sit on our front step for no reason, greeting people as they walk by. This could be the reason I don't see it, but I don't think so, I think our generations don't mix as much and I think we plan this. As soon as kids are old enough to talk, listen and understand they are quite often shooed out of the room when adults are getting together....they are sent to the basement (I'm convinced this is why people like to have basements). Lots of times when adults are engaged in an activity like planning cards or playing a game a separeate activity is arrangeed for the children. I recently read a book called "To little to ignore" and the author, who's name I have forgotten talks about this very same thing. We have resorted to educating our children only by teaching, not by example. Knowledge no longer gets passed down generation to generation but by a book or by a certain class yo took.We even send them to a separate Sunday School (in the basement) we set up kids programs and events and then we expect other people to volunteer (most of the times) to run all these programs. Why do we have to have a kids cooking class at our community center? Why can't the children hang out in grandma's kitchen? Teenagers take babysitting courses because they did not have to look after their siblings or younger cousins. Here they all sleep in the same bed, nothing is separate. From baby to grandma, all in one little house, elbow to elbow eating together at a little plastic table. No privacy ever, which must bring families closer. It seems to me that the Mexican people have more respect for the little kids and for the elderly, they seem to be esteemed higher than everyone else. I've also noticed that people here are very proud to introduce me to their mother or father, they make a point of making sure I know who is their mother or father is, not kids so much but older people who's parents are elderly....interesting. Maybe we should mix it up a little more at home, I know I'll try when I get home. I always plan on making changes when I get home and at first I do but in a very short time I am once again caught up in my very Canadian way of life. Like how I get used to the price of food. Getting off the plane I am shocked at the price of a cup of coffee and decide I am never again paying that but it does not take long and I don't even think of it anymore. It's very surprising how fast a person can go from shock to not even noticing. We become apathetic to things so easily....that is a whole other story.

What will the New Year bring?

I usually don’t make New Years resolutions, in my younger days I used to but never did seem to stick to them. I did however quit smoking on a New years resolution quite a few years ago but that is about the only resolution that stuck long enough to make any difference in my life. I do like to make a new “plan” at the beginning of the year which I guess could be called a resolution, call it what ever you want....here is my new plan;

A while back a friend brought to my attention a devotional by Oswald Chambers, in it he answers my all time question, one that I have been pondering over and over for many years. “What is God’s purpose for my life?”  I won’t go through the whole thing but to sum it up in one sentence “His purpose for me is that I depend on Him and on His power now”. That’s it, abide in Christ every minute of the day and rely on Him and trust in His power every minute. That’s my plan. I have read many books on the subject of finding your purpose they have titles like these, “The purpose driven life” “a walk with purpose” “the  cure for the common life” “Prayer for purpose” “conversation with purpose” “what color is your parachute?” “What color is your kite, what makes you fly?” and many others, all good reads but I must have missed the point somewhere because I didn’t feel like they answered my question because I had it all wrong. I followed through on workbooks, filled out spread sheets, worked with graphs and pie charts...ect.  I thought my purpose in life was going to be something physical not Spiritual, like go teach English in the back allys of Mexico, go feed the hungry and the poor on the streets in Calcutta, sew clothes for the naked kids in Africa and so on. All God wants from me is to abide in Him continually everyday...every minute. Easy?  No. It’s not something that you put on your to do list and a week later you check it off..Done. Nope, it is to take me all my life, it will be on my to do list everyday until I die. It is to be my life.

I do also have another plan that I will be able to check off my to do list daily ( I hope....because I love checking things off my list) I plan on taking my eating habits here in Mexico home with me.  I plan on eating real food when I get home, not packaged or boxed food. I already don’t eat a lot of packaged or boxed food. I can’t remember the last time I bought anything in a can (except Pepsi of course) but I do occasionally buy and eat things I should not. I plan on growing my own produce in my newly built raised garden beds and my greenhouse, what I don’t consume in the summer months I plan on freezing and preserving for the winter. I am hoping my crop will be bountiful enough to share with friends and neighbours, maybe this will be the way to get to know my neighbours better, maybe my garden will inspire them to have gardens as well. Unless of course my garden turns out to be a dud.  This plan will take care of my physical being while the first one will take care of the spiritual which I think makes it a well rounded plan. I was going to add some project plans like knit a certain amount or finish some paintings or quilt so many quilts or save so much money but I think that would just add stress and disappointment so I will chalk those thing up as being little surprise bonuses when they happen. They are after all not necessities and therefore should not consume me.

What happened on the Island on New Years Eve? Not a thing. If something happened I missed it, I was in bed at 10 pm. The only reason I even stayed up that late was to finish one of the lace gauntlets. Ever try taking a picture of your arm? It isn't easy. Now I seem to have picked up "single glove syndrome" It is very common among knitters, or so I hear. When you finish a glove or sock it feels like such an accomplishment and it looks finished that you feel finished, but you are not, you are only half finished. I read stories of how it can take weeks, months even years to finish the second glove or sock. I do hope that doesn't happen to me but I really do feel very smug that I have finished my first glove.....I am even wearing it now and it's doesn't even bother me that I am only wearing one, because it is so pretty and feels so elegant and ......it looks finished. I am also finished beading the top of one sock, I finished it a few days ago....it looks finished too....for now. 

Shopping? Or Adventure?

December 30, 2009

Today was supposed to be my shopping day. A friend of mine is up from Canada and we had agreed to meet today to do some shopping, I thought this has been her idea but she says it was mine...either way, it was an unsuccessful shopping trip, and now both of us don’t know who to blame. It mainly sucked because when it comes to shopping I have the attention span of a 6 week old puppy. I become whiney and cranky very quickly, but this was supposed to be different because we are in Mexico which makes it an adventure and I really needed some stuff....remember, I need some bling after my incident at church on Tuesday. So for a few days already I had been making a list, I wanted some nice blingy shoes and a blingy purse to match and some rhinestones for my toes (I’m serious here) I needed some yummy smelling soap and some shampoo, I needed a few more strings of Christmas lights (since I blew mine up). A lot of people here have Christmas lights up all year; they use them as “lights”. Dah. I also wanted to go to a pharmacy and get muscle relaxants that cost me a gazillion dollars at home and I have to have a doctor’s prescription for....as some of you know I am a bit uptight and have many muscle problems due to that, it’s a problem that I am working on. I already know that I am not a good shopper and I also know that I prefer to shop alone because of that, why subject other people to my issues, but this was to be an adventure. Regardless of what you call it, it was not successful. I did not buy a purse or shoes or lights. Did buy shampoo and soap and got my muscle relaxants, really had to hold back from gobbling them all up after all was said and done, instead I bought a bottle of Kahlua...also a muscle relaxant. I just can’t seem to walk, and keep my eye out for purse or shoe and keep a conversation going with my shopping partner while not getting run over by a bus, be polite and smiley to everyone, talk to the sales clerk that is helping me and keep conversation going with shopping partner, move on to next store, look around and browse, thinking “do I want these or do I want those” and keep conversation going with shopping partner while head is somewhere else.....I can’t do it. I went home......was very happy to get home to my Island where you can’t do any shopping even if you wanted too, you can shop off of Salvador’s vegetable truck....that’s my kind of shopping. However, I do still need/want new shoes and a new purse and I will go in alone and not even tell anyone that I am going...just a precaution. Maybe I can convince Salvador to start selling shoes and purses from his truck. 

I went over to the trailer park to complain/whine/inquire about my very intermittent internet and to borrow an iron from a friend and here’s what’s happening there;

-       - 2 men were peeling the bark off a coconut tree because they each want to take one home, apparently if the bark is not on it you are allowed, why do they want to take it home...no se, probably the same reason I want to take coconut home (which by the way all went mouldy)

-       - One woman just finished reupholstering another women’s RV, complete with curtains and cushions....yes! She has a sewing machine.....there is a sewing machine next door to me.

-       - One man was monitoring a ship out at sea with binoculars, but he got dizzy because his hammock was moving a bit and the ship was moving a bit and the sea was moving a bit.....it was just all too much.

-       A couple of women were monitoring the sunset and measuring how much it moves every night (I thought I was the only one doing this)

-       - About 4 men were working on a tree trying to set up an new modem for out internet

-       - One women took the time to show me how to crochet a trim of little beads onto the edge of a pair of socks (me needs to go to town and buy some beads and socks now)

-       - One woman had bought an old washing machine that has a wringer that works by cranking it and the machine agitates by moving a metal rod that comes out of the machine, you stand there and move the rod. I have a word for this machine in German but don’t have one in English; it’s a Schtook voosh machine. It was for sale somewhere for $8.00 and her husband had the nerve to barter it down to $5.00.

-       - Another man was going to lower his hammock a few inches because he thought it was getting to be too much work to lift his legs that high, he does not want to get over worked.

-      -  One women had gone into the mainland 3 times already this week and all her neighbours are talking about what she could possibly be doing there.....I’m thinking why not just ask her, but speculating seems to be way more fun.

That is all I have to report today, now I need to go and lay in my hammock and wait for the Kalhua to kick in and fantasize about all the pretty socks I will bead.....I don’t even wear socks.