Knitting, with Dogs

Happy New Year!

A Carol for New Year's Day,

(to the tune of Green Sleeves)

The old year now away is fled,
the new year it is entered;
Then let us all our sins down tread,
and joyfully all appear.
Let's merry be this holiday,
and let us run with sport and play,
Hang sorrow, let's cast care away --
God send us a merry new year!

Happy new year, all!

Yeah, pretty much

You Are Romanticism

You are likely to see the world as it should be, not as it is. You prefer to celebrate the great things people do... not the horrors they're capable of. For you, there is nothing more inspiring than a great hero. You believe that great art reflects the artist's imagination and true ideals.

What Art Movement Are You?

Nicked from Suzanne.

Deep sigh....

Well, at the risk of being the turd in the punchbowl, I have to say I've had better Chrismasses than this past one.

Oh, the day itself was fine.  I was a little antsy and impatient for the rest of the family to join me and my sis and my dad (Dear Robert stayed home) at my dad's house.  But that's just me -- Old Impatience.  When everybody got there, we were fine.  We opened presents, ate the great cooking my sister, The Fabulous Lisa, made, and sat around and had good conversation.

I had to get back to Atlanta to do petsitting, so I gathered my stuff together and plopped it in the car, and went back into the house to say my last goodbyes.  These got drawn out a little longer than than should have (maybe to 45 mins or an hour).

But when I got back to my car, someone had gone in and stolen almost all my presents.  And my cell phone.

No, the car wasn't locked.  It's a little town in middle Georgia, for Og's sake, not somewhere I thought I had to worry about.  And it was in my dad's driveway.

It's not like they got big expensive presents.  We don't do that kind of Christmas.  I have to wonder if they opened the bag of different flavors of teas, crystallized ginger (yum), a second-hand DVD movie (not player, an obscure old movie) and thought "WTF kind of presents are these???"  They got all that, plus a gift certificate to a LYS 90 miles away.  (I've already talked to the shop, and they've been kind enough to be understanding and will honor the amount of the certificate!  Thank you, Arlene!!  And if anyone shows up with the certificate with my name on it, I hope they call the cops on them.)

It could have been worse.  It could have been the presents I'd planned to GIVE.  Those were safe.  And the cellphone is a pay-as-you-go model (so no possibility of running up a bill), and it's been taken care of too. 

But my trust in my fellow men and women has dropped once again.  And that's the biggest loss of the season.

I'm bummed, but I'm ok.  I'm apparently on the Universe's bad side right now, so I need to think what I can do to give something back.  Because you can either sit around and feel bad about stuff, or you can Do Something Needful.  Feeling bad is easy.  Doing Something Needful is hard.   

At least the holiday knitting I did was well-received.  :)

Nowell, nowell!

Nowell, nowell.
Who is there that singeth so?
I am here, Sir Christemas.
Welcome, my lord Sir Christemas!
Welcome to all, both more and less,
Come near.
Nowell, nowell.

Dieu vous garde, beaux sieurs,
Tidings I you bring:
A maid hath borne a child full young,
Which causeth you to sing.
Nowell, nowell.

Christ is now born of a pure maid;
In an ox-stall he is laid,
Wherefore sing we all at a brayde:
Nowell, nowell.

Buvez bien par toute la compagnie.
Make good cheer and be right merry,
And sing with us now joyfully,
Nowell, nowell, nowell!

 

Merry Christmas all!

Christmas Eve

little tree                    

by: e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

                   

ITTLE tree                      

little silent Christmas tree                      

you are so little                      

you are more like a flower                      

who found you in the green forest                      

and were you very sorry to come away?                      

see i will comfort you                      

because you smell so sweetly                      

i will kiss your cool bark                      

and hug you safe and tight                      

just as your mother would,                      

only don't be afraid                      

look the spangles                      

that sleep all the year in a dark box                      

dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,                      

the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,                      

put up your little arms                      

and i'll give them all to you to hold                      

every finger shall have its ring                      

and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy                      

then when you're quite dressed                      

you'll stand in the window for everyone to see                      

and how they'll stare!                      

oh but you'll be very proud                      

and my little sister and i will take hands                      

and looking up at our beautiful tree                      

we'll dance and sing                      

"Noel Noel"                    

Welcome Yule!

 And Happy Hogswatch too!

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Susan Cooper

A voting opportunity

My sister, The Fabulous Lisa, has a photo in a competition over at Funny Photos Contest/Cute Photos.

Her picture is 5x, the one with the cat in the box sticking his tongue out.  If you like the picture, feel free to vote for it.

Because it's always good to help a sister out.  :)

One of these things is not like the other

A word to the wise.

Do not confuse this:

with this:

If you do, your sauteed greens may not taste exactly the way you expected them to.

Ask me how I know this.  On the other hand, I suspect you probably already know.

/sigh/

Bloody hell

Terry Pratchett diagnosed with rare form of early onset Alzheimer's.

Apparently the little stroke he had earlier in the year was just a symptom of something more serious.  :(  :(  :(

This explains something for me

From No Impact Man:

If we get to do the things that other people do and have the things that other people have, that means we're as loveable as everyone else. If we go the places they go, then we're as cool and, therefore, again, loveable. Consumption has become a surrogate for being loved.

That may explain a lot of what goes on in the knit blogging world.