a present for you

His blog, silly!

Every year, local blogger Jack Bogdanski hosts Buck-a-Hit Day on his blog. Jack’s sixth annual Buck-A-Hit Day is today.

So how does this work? Visit Jack’s blog, that’s all. Visit and he will donate $1 to charity – up to $1,000. Plus another benefactor has pledged $1 to the Oregon Food Bank for every hit – up to $5000. And there a way for you to throw in a little extra if you are able, but that is certainly not required. If you do, your contribution will be matched, up to $2,100. Jack’s also running a comment contest. Leave the best comment about the season and you can steer part of the contributions to a charity of your choice.

Last year, $4,851.05 was raised on Buck-a-Hit Day. Let’s show him what a few knitters can do! Head over there to Jack Bog’s Blog, and separate him from some of is hard-earned (or otherwise) cash.

Remember that it’s unique visits. More than one won’t count.

a little snow

Here is my obligatory Oh! My! Word! It’s! Snowing! In! Portland! picture.

It’s a little early. If we get snow, it’s usually in January or, rarely, February. December is unusual. Those of you who live in snowy places would laugh at us here. There has been nothing on the local TV stations today except Storm Coverage. They’ve been predicting this all week, and I can see a certain amount of satisfaction in their coverage that this time they were right.

They had actually predicted that it would start last night. I only hoped that it would wait until we were all safely home from the Christmas concert we attend every year, and it did. And this morning when I woke up, it was still just raining, with a little snow mixed in. It started to snow in earnest around 9:00 AM and it’s been snowing ever since. I would guess I have around 5″ right now at my house. You can see that Barry The Berry Bear looks a bit cold. He should be hibernating!

Portland Public Schools have already announced closing tomorrow, along with a host of other schools and some businesses. Chains or other traction devices are being required on all of the freeways, even in town. Yes, it’s funny. I grew up in a snowy place and so I’m in on the joke. In our defense, I can only plead that our snow is usually really wet and compacts into ice almost instantly when anyone drives or walks over it. And ice is hard to drive on no matter what.

I have a full pantry and need go nowhere for awhile, so I will be fine. And I don’t think I will run out of yarn any time soon…

On a different note, Archaeology Magazine’s top 10 discoveries of 2008 includes a mummy found near a busy street in Lima, Peru. I would not ordinary discuss such things here, but this mummy, gentle reader, was buried with balls of yarn and knitting needles. These would be used for single-needle knitting, more like nalbinding than what we thing of as knitting proper. But, still… Archaeologists believe that she was a master weaver because of the tools in her tomb. Maybe she just loved her stash and wanted to take it with her?

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Either. I really love wrapping gifts and try very hard to make the wrapping suit the gift and the receiver. And it must be glitzy and pretty, too.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Always real.

3. When do you put up the tree?
It used to be whenever I caught a cold between Thanksgiving and Christmas. OK. Not really, but it always seemed like I was tramping around a tree farm looking for a tree with a running nose. Now that I’m living alone, I don’t decorate, except for a wreath outside my door.

4. When do you take the tree down?
New Year’s Day. Except now it’s the wreath I take down and not the tree.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Yes, but only homemade. I don’t like the stuff that comes in cartons. I’d prefer Tom & Jerry’s, and that batter has to be homemade, too. I know… picky, picky.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Oh, that’s hard! When I was about four years old, I received a red dress that had gold rickrack on it. It was meant as a Christmas party dress, but I instantly thought of it as my princess dress and would have lived in it had my mother allowed it. Second favorite was probably the year that my cousin made us all new Christmas sockings because ours were rather old and tired and really needed replacing.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
#1 Son. He needs many things but doesn’t often like to ask for them. And some of the things he wants are beyond my expertise.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Bro and his family. Every year I buy them tickets to a local Christmas concert and we go together.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes. I have a lovely nativity. My mother gave it to me one piece every year until the set was completed, starting the first Christmas I was married. I display it on the piano, which is just the right size and shape.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Email. If I remember. I usually call close friends and family.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I can’t think of an actual gift that I haven’t liked. But a dog I’d had as a teenager passed away on Christmas eve. That was not a very happy year.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
It’s a tie between A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Sreet and White Christmas.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I start early and finish before Thanksgiving. Nothing else in my life is as disciplined as my Christmas shopping, trust me. But I refuse to go into a mall between Thanksgiving and New Years. Refuse. The discipline was ingrained before online shopping became available as an option.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes. Not often, but I have regifted things that I can’t use to someone who can. I am more likely to exchange it, though. But either happens very rarely.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My mother’s peppernuts.

16. Lights on the tree?
Yes, multicolored.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
I’ve always loved We Three Kings. For some reason the minor melody touches me. That’s probably tied with Sleighride. In a more modern vein, The Trail Band’s original tune Dancing ‘Round The Christmas Tree has my toes tapping.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I love staying home. But for a few years #1 Son and I went to Las Vegas for Christmas and had a wonderful time.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
You betcha! I once got a speeding ticket because I was trying to remember them and recite them to #1 Son — he was about 3 at the time — and not paying attention on a hill in a neighborhood that was marked 25MPH and had a speed trap at the bottom.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas morning. When I was a kid we once opened the presents on Christmas Eve and then couldn’t figure out what to do Christmas morning. The family decided unanimously never to do that again.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
People who are so intent on getting the “perfect” present that they don’t care how rude they are as long as the objective is accomplished. That’s why I don’t go to malls during the season.

22. Favorite ornament theme or color?
I love hand-made ornaments of all kinds.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year?
It’s always hard for me to think of things I want, beyond my family safe and around me. Even when I was a child I had a hard time coming up with Christmas lists.

24. Angel on the tree top or a star?
When I was growing up, we had a star. Now I have an angel that has been on my tree for years and years. It’s always the last thing that goes up on the tree, and the first that comes down.

25. Favorite Christmas dinner?
A re-do of Thanksgiving, except with carrot pudding for desert instead of pumpkin pie. Last year, though, I made a big every-vegetable-in-the-world stew, and it was pretty darned awesome.

Via text, rather late at night:

#1 Son: Hey momma are you awake?

Mom: Yeah. Wazzup?

#1 Son: I got this piece of paper I was using as an earplug stuck in my ear cos I’m at a show. Should I go to the clinic in the morning? It’s seriously stuck up there.

Mom: Yes if you can’t get it out carefully with tweezers or such because you don’t want to damage your eardrum. Be very careful not to poke it in deeper.

#1 Son: I think I already did.

Via phone, shortly after the above:

Mom: Is your ear bleeding? Does it hurt a whole bunch?

#1 Son: No. No bleeding and it doesn’t really hurt.

Mom: I think it’s safe to wait until morning. Until then just leave it alone and don’t mess with it. If it starts bleeding go to the emergency room. Dare I ask why you weren’t using regular earplugs?

#1 Son: I usually use toilet paper but there wasn’t really any so I just used a wad of paper.

Mom: Go to the clinic in the morning. Then get some ear plugs.

Gentle reader, I tell you, I am reminded of the time when #1 Son was about 3 years old and he stuffed an entire, 2-ply Kleenex up his nose until the only way you could tell it was there was by peering up his nostril. He was very proud of himself, and the doctor was quite impressed. Upon extraction, it proved to be a pretty big wad. I really thought those days were long behind me.

I am happy to report that the folks at the clinic, according to #1 Son, appeared to be vastly amused.

Me? Not so much.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the USA. May wonderful things come your way. I have many things to be thankful for.

P.S. To gentle readers from outside the US… That’s called a “hand turkey.” It’s a traditional Thanksgiving craft that harried moms use to keep their kids out from underfoot and away from the food until it’s ready.

theater marquee

Something about this sign struck me, and so I had to stop and snap a pic of it.

I really hope that this is not a sign of the times. But, given the current economic and political climes, I greatly fear it is.

Aye, chihuahua, indeed.