Molly Bee's Attic

So I put together the bunny I was knitting for Hospice last night. Bad news. I think the folks over at Hospice have enough to deal with without being subjected to a misshapen wad of knitting and batting touted as a cute and fuzzy bunny. Something went VERY wrong in the assembly process. I think my problem was two fold. I think I used too fat yarn and knit it up on too fat needles. Then I over stuffed it. Wait...I guess my problem was three fold. The directions were clear but my bunny didn't look anything like the adorable cuddly one in the picture on the pattern. Mine was cuddly in a Three-Mile-Island-Bloated-Road-Kill kinda way. Which is no way at all really. Back to the drawing board. I'll give it another try in a smaller gauge and if that doesn't work, it's back to Teddy Bears 'R' Us to purchase Dorie Bears from now on!

What is it about Tuesdays around here lately? Honest to God. It's enough to drive a girl to drink! We had our meeting this morning where we all listened to the departmental Spin Doctor take everything everyone said, change the word order and regurge it back at us in his patently pompous manner. When he wasn't at it, the departmental weasel was taking credit for everyone else's ideas from last week's meeting. To top it off, the Big Boss had no knowledge of a web page on our site that I am responsible for. I've only been creating the metrics and updating the thing monthly for seven years. It's one of the main parts of my job and is done mostly for her benefit. I left the meeting with my knickers all in a knot . As soon as we get back to our desks, the fire alarm goes off. I am the fire marshall for my area. I am to see that the four conference rooms are empty and that the doors are closed and that everyone is out of the building. Sounds simple enough, eh? Especial...

Still didn't get that darn shrug photo up. It was thunderstormy and miserable all weekend. I heard on the news this morning that in one county they had to move the hail from the roads with a snowplow! Yikes. So I did what any self-respecting girly-girl does when things are bleak. I went to the mall. I needed new pants. I've lost a little weight since this diabetes thing started. Not much, but curiously, I can take the jeans I bought a month ago off without unbuttoning them. I found this highly amusing. Mr. Bee...not so much. He got tired of me running up to him all the time with my arms above my head saying "Pants me! No really! Go ahead and pants me! They come right off!" So it was his suggestion that maybe I look into acquiring jeans that actually fit. I even got the old-lady elastic waist ones so maybe I won't have to go again soon. Yankee thrift trumps style! Speaking of old ladies. Yes we were! Try and keep up people! I got a cute email this week that said ...

I had my nails done today. I'm a girly girl now! Normally I cut my nails so you can't see any white since they are so peely, puny and pathetic. I decided I was going to have them professionally done as my 'reward' for getting my blood sugar test number back to normal in the three months since my diabetes diagnosis. Off to the salon I went today and had French tips done. They are still short but now they are all shiny and girly looking. I'm not tired of looking at them yet, but Mr. Bee is. I've only asked him 187 times what he thinks of them. At first he said things like 'Fabulous' in a sarcastic tone of voice. Now he just rolls his eyes. Hmph...boys! We'll see how much I like them at bedtime. I am having enough trouble just typing with the new talons. It'll be doubly hard tomorrow if I mange to gouge my eyeballs out trying to remove my contacts lenses. Being a girl is dangerous work. Mr. Bee and I went to see The Happy Diabetic Chef today at the...

Today is 'Bring Your Family To Work' Day. It's also 'Bring Your Pet To Work' Day. Remember when it used to be just 'Bring Your Child To Work'? There would always be 10 or so kids tagging along to see what it was like at Mommy's/Daddy's work. It was all well and good. The kids really got a glimpse of what Mommy/Daddy did all day after they left in the morning. Now to be PC, we have to have a whole building full of kit, kin, pets, livestock and poultry using up all the meeting rooms to make 'DNA on a stick' (gummy stuff on toothpicks), playing games, touring, snacking: just generally yelling and racing around. Not exactly the picture of what we do at work on a typical day. (I said a typical day...some days we do have our moments. I'm still scraping silly string off stuff from one of those particular days a couple of years ago.) You can break the whole lot of them down into two groups. The employees who actually come here to work are with...

I just received the gift basket from Shawna at Black Waters Coffee Company. As you may recall, Shawna's response to my fan email was the only thing that kept me from crawling up onto my desk and jumping to my death on the disaster that was Tuesday. The box contained fifteen 10-cup pouches of lots of their different flavored coffee and two thermal travel mugs. Black Waters is my favorite coffee and today...Shawna is my favorite person! Tonight I will finish the dreaded shrug!I have been working on it off and on all winter. I am half-way through the last cuff. I'm pretty proud of it but am extremely glad that I am on the home stretch. It's like knitting an afghan and it's hot now that summers here. I will take a photo and post it here tomorrow. After I get that done, I have to rework the button band on my top-down cardigan. The cardigan is about hip length. The button band however, is about belly button length. Not exactly 'styling'. No amount of blocking can rep...

Why did I even bother to get out of bed this morning? It probably had something to do with a screaming tomcat sitting on my neck alternately screaming at me and grooming my nose hairs. The day has gone straight downhill from there and it's not even noon. I have the headache from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. I poked my thumb THROUGH my Styrofoam coffee cup thus coating myself, my notebook and all of my papers with brew and sending a hazelnut-scented waterfall down the back stairwell onto some unsuspecting coworkers. Someone scammed the room I had booked for a meeting that I had set up for 15 people and I had to scramble to find a replacement two minutes before the meeting. My 'children' have picked today to pitch the business end of hissy fits at me regarding all sorts of earth-shatteringly important topics such as toner, spiral bound notebooks and the width of the lead in their mechanical pencils. All I want to do is go home and crawl back under the covers and not come out unt...

I finished my Sweet Tart socks. I SOOOOO loved doing them both at the same time so I didn't get one all finished and then have to start the second from scratch. The leg and top is a garter rib and looks kinda waffley but you really can't tell in the picture. (Nice shadow of my head in the lower right! ) And this is a landscape quilt that I have been working on most of the late winter and this spring. My Mum is an amazing landscape painter and always says not to keep dinking with a painting once you get it done because you can always find a little thing to add here or there and before you know it you've over done it. But I don't listen to her. Never have. Ask her. She'll tell you. 'Over done' is my middle name. So I've spent months alternately letting the thing sit and 'rest' and adding leaves and branches here or there. It's beginning to border on being a FrankenQuilt so I'd better quit and get it quilted. I thought I'd hang it in my ...

We have three very 'unique' pets at home. We started 16 years ago with a tiny black kitten. Mr. Bee and I went to the shelter and looked at all of the cute kitties that were begging for attention; all rubs and purrs. Then we went to the a dimly lit, cobweb-filled corner of the shelter. Thunder rumbled. Lightning flashed. Against the far back wall we could make out a small cage. Through the bars of the kennel black, sharp-clawed paws slashed the air. An attendant came and pushed a plate laden with ripe carrion across the room with a long stick, enticing whatever was in there to make tasmanian devil type sounds. "That's the one we want." says Mr. Bee. No cutsie, suck-up cats for him. And so we took Sebastian home. We've never regretted the decision. He has been the loviest, most loyal, little guy I've ever met. He showers us with kisses and songs and snuggles. We cannot, however convince anyone else he's ever met that he is such a sweet boy. In the pres...

Here is the "Violence By The River' shawl being good-naturedly modeled by the lovely and talented Mr. Bee. God love him....he puts up with so much. He draws the line at knitted lingerie though. He has to retain some dignity. And here is a close-up of the Chernobyl-esque flower pattern. Of course it's not blocked yet. That would mean actually finishing something and well...I just don't do that. The only thing I don't like about it is it has that silk smell. You know the one? It's organic but still disturbing. I think it smells like worm butts. Maybe a little lavender soap in the blocking process whenever that may be. It's weighs like 2 oz but is a warm little bugger! Speaking of rivers...and we were weren't we? Bow to me! The Queen of the Fine Line Segues! I went geocaching with my boss at lunch today...in the rain...through the weeds. Might as well have jumped in the mighty Mississip fully clothed. My pants stuck to my legs, my shoes squished. What I w...

I finished the seafoam scarf I've been making out of the SoySilk yarn. I am amazed that it is actually made out of proteins from the residue from making tofu. I love tofu and now I love it even more! It's multi purpose! Stir fry it! Knit it! Just don't bake it into a cheesecake. I tried that once fifteen years ago and have yet to live it down. Tofu is many things. It is not, however...as it turns out... a decadent dessert. No matter how much chocolate glaze you drizzle over the top trying to disguise it. Oh it looks gorgeous and yet it still tastes like...well...bean curd covered in chocolate sauce. And it will put you in the pastry dog house for years no many how many 'good' desserts you make after that. Here is a close-up of the pattern. It's not blocked yet. It's just a series of dropped stitches. The pattern was a freebie that Heather down at The Sow's Ear designed. It's on their website www.knitandsip.com . Look under patterns. It's called ...

Today I performed my semi-annual butchering of the shrubs. That's why I didn't take a wide shot of our new flower pots. The bushes to either side like they got a pretty bad (and vicious) haircut. Witness the leftover carnage splattering the walkway. But like a haircut, they'll grow back just fine. They go very well with the lawn that Scott butchered with the new edger. Edger... Edge-er. Edge of the lawn. How hard is that to understand? It's not called an 'Edge -and-then-a 6-inch-diagonal-slash-into-the-lawn -er'! Sheesh. That too will grow back but tomorrow we won't be able to get in the door for all of the landscaping and gardening brochures and business cards heaped on the front step! [ Please...for the love of your neighbors and good plants everywhere...let us do your yard work for you! Huge discounts! Really!] But the impatience are pretty. For now. It's only been one day but they are still alive. That is kind of a coup for me-notorious black thumb...

I took a spinning class today. Here is the huge skein of yarn I made with my drop spindle. Cool huh? Would be if it wasn't actually the length of my middle finger! Three hours worth of work...enough for a hamster scarf. It was really fun though and I was happy with the consistancy. I learned how to ply and skein it once it's spun. Also learned a lot about different kinds of animal and plant fibers. The lady next to me asked the teacher three different times how she washed her fleece to get the lanolin out before spinning. The teacher told her three times that she puts in the kitchen sink with hot water and Dawn dishwashing soap and lets it sit then she rinses it well. Lanolin has a low melting temperature so that should do it. The lady just wasn't happy with that answer and she asked each time why it didn't felt. The teacher kept patiently explaining that it wasn't the hot water that felted the fibers it was the aggitation. Come to find out the problem was that the ...

Just a short entry tonight. I have to be at Hospice at 6 for my volunteer shift. I have to admit, I was pretty scared about volunteering in the in-patient unit to begin with and I always kind of get butterflies in my tummy when it's time to go in the building, but it has truly become one of the richest experiences of my life. It's not without its difficulties-all of the roller coaster emotions that death brings- but the rewards far outweigh the tears shed. I have met so many amazing people; patients and staff alike, and learned so many valuable lessons. It certainly puts one's own life in perspective. On a typical night I can do anything from filling the birdfeeders outside the rooms, collecting dinner trays and menus, stocking linens, refilling ice water to stocking the fridge. Other nights find me feeding someone, reading to someone else, running when a call light comes on, visiting or just holding a hand as the end draws near. Nothing huge in the great scheme of things, ...

Wow! Two entries in just one day! There is a lot of tornadic activity in the area tonight. Makes for some excellent cloud formations! This one on the right is just south and west of us over by Mount Horeb and New Glarus. It will just miss us if it keeps on its current path. Three tornadoes from this one and lots of funnel and wall clouds. No serious damage as far as we know. One hit over by Barneveld, a town that was completely wiped off the map by an F5 a few years back. This one on the left is to the north east of us. Lots of tornadoes and had caused a big pileup on I90/39 by Portage. Apparently a trailer truck ran in to some raining debris. Gorgeous! Madison seems to be sandwiched in between them and will probably escape the worst of it.....ah...forget I said that. The siren is blaring again. Well, better head back to the basement to duck and cover!

No Angus sightings in the last few days. I think he has moved on. I discovered that he will never truly be gone however when I mowed the lawn last night. I saw this weird weed in the grass so I pulled on it. Up came the sprouts and a small cache of sunflower seeds. About as many as will fit in the mouth of a thirteen-striped ground squirrel named Angus. As I continued mowing, I discovered more and more caches. My peanut butter must have been really offensive if he moved out with that much 'treasure' buried around. I can't figure out why our lawn service didn't get them when they sprayed a couple of weeks ago. Conditions must be just right now because they are all starting to sprout. Angus. Gone but not forgotten. Speaking of weird animal things, Wee Fergus, geo-dog extrordinaire, is having an all-out hissy fit that he cannot go out on the back deck to survey his kingdom like he always does several times every day. We hired someone to come and stain it yesterday and we h...

I fell in a hole. Heavy sigh. Scott and I went up-country to visit his mother. It was DairyFest weekend. We were walking downtown to see the parade. The streets were all blocked of so we were out on the tar instead of the sidewalk. There was a petting zoo on the right and while I was making cooing noises at the goats, I stumbled, did the some amazing gymnastic moves and then fell in a huge pothole, hitting the far, raggedy-concrete/tar edge with both knees, my left arm and a shoulder. Didn't even come close to sticking that landing! Of course I popped right back up and claimed I was tough, it was alright, hardly hurt at all-blah blah blah. I felt like such an idiot- falling (literally) for the oldest trick in the book . Everyone knows that goats love to distract people to make them fall down. Hardy Har Har. They have a mean sense of humor. Stupid goats. We continued walking to the parade and then stood for 45 minutes in the sun watching. Everything stung and I was trying to look li...

So I went to the Park Commission meeting last night to give my dog and pony show on geocaching. All of this started when I called them in April and asked permission to place a cache is a park near work. No one had placed one in town before and so they needed more details, so I brought them; history of the sport, finding a cache, hiding a cache. I had presentation packets and visual aids. All my ducks were in a row. All to get permission to stash a cache. It started out great. They all thought it looked like fun and would be a good way to draw people to the area. They were all for me hiding the stash. Then some kind of voo-doo-feng shui-kung-fu-alternate reality happened and I began to question them about their decision. I put enough doubt and lack of clarity on the table that by the time I left I had successfully convinced them to withdraw the permission for my cache to be placed. Somehow I also volunteered to research and draft their guidelines/ permits for future caches, and teach a...