warning: syrupy sweetness flows within

Dear Diary,

*sigh*

Well, on the positive front, My Jerry and I have been married for six months now and I could not have dreamt of a better place to me at this point in my life; he's so sweet ta me and I adore him. He treats me like a princess and I'm learning to like that, surprisingly. He's very supportive, and is so very understanding. He's better than any thing I'd ever thought I'd know.

Stop yer gagging; ya jest wisht ya had such sweetness.

On the not so positive front, in fact it's a swollen negative front, a hah~UUUU~jah convex front...I am now the fattest I've ever been. I'm not a fat and sassy kinda fat; I'm a tears of frustration with no one to blame but me fat. This point was blatantly illustrated today when I went thru my entire wardrobe searching for appropriate garb for attending the lovely vivacious Ferah's wedding tomorrow. I could not even struggle into my fattest fat~pants, my huge~ass was not going to be encased in any of my slacks and my rather large bulbous belly was not going to be encased in any dress or skirt that I own.

I take that back. There was ONE, one dress that fit. It's a dress I have not worn in years, since I was the fattest I was before this. I was 222 at that point, I think. Altho, for some reason, I am thinking that 235 was my heaviest. A year and a half ago when I first met My Jerry, I weighed about 180. Now I weight 230+. Yes, it is less heavy than 235, but I'm fatter now than I've ever been. Bigger. I think gaining over fifty pounds in one year is unspeakably shameful.

And yet I do continue to speak. Amazing, that.

So when I met My Jerry as he pulled up on his bike after work, clad in heavy denim with pretty embroidered flowers and vines on the egde of the hem and on the "lil" jacket that goes with the sleeveless tent; I think the sheer misery on my face, radiating from my pores like the sweat I broke just getting dressed~~well, I was all but bursting into tears. My Jerry whisked me off to WalMart and we scoured thru their racks.

I was amazed. I mean, I remember WalMart carrying business clothes and dress~casual women's wear. Not to be found. There was a small area with a selection of plus sized shorts and athletic wear. We did manage to find one rack, which meant it was one style top in four colors, that was suitable. The rest of the polyester/nylon was in ghastly prints that made my eyes hurt {literally, very chaotic busy prints do that to me, my eyes hurt, my brain swells, my stomach cramps}. And we had to turn to the MEN'S section to find a pair of dress~pants for me.

My Jerry was so amazing! He just guided me right along, pulled out a few items of clothing for me try on. Gave me a hug, to size me so that he could guestimate slack size {and he was spot~on!}. It was like having my own personal buyer.

After he pointed me into the fitting room, as I was standing there in pin~striped slacks that actually were pretty cool, while I was waiting for him to grab a different blouse off the rack {this one blue, to go with the pin~stripes}; the lady at the fitting desk asked if I was ok, as I was getting rather teary~eyed. I sniffled, and explained that this is the largest I've ever been and my dear sweet husband is so very loving and ... then I started blinking rapidly to stem the overflow before I ended up even more of a mess...she told me how very lucky I am. And I cried, "he's wonnerfullest, so very sweet ta me and I'm just a big ole whine~baby."

After we found new slacks, a flattering blouse, he took me over to the shoes and we found a nice pair of silver flats that will set off the light bright blue pin~stripes in the black pants. And I told him how very much he spoils me. And he loves me so, even in my miserably oversized current state of affairs.

And how sweet is that?

I love you, My Jerry.

Thank you for making me safe, secure, cherish, and loved beyond belief.

lemme grab my pearls, heels, and coat~dress

My Jerry knows that I like retro~50s propaganda with apropos commentary, so he found this for me a few weeks back. But I haven't been able to throw it into any of my entries thus far.

so it stands, alone.

maps! and tourbooks! and info! oh! my!!

{sigh}

i love maps.

and look what AAA sent me!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmappzzzzzzzzzz

{sigh}

k, now i go inhale all the mappy goodness, k? bye!

welcome to our home!

My friend brought her boys over, and My Jerry made chili and corn~bread {chicken nuggets for the boys}, for dinner this evening. One boy is about a year and a half and the other is about three. The three year old is such a charmer and he cracks me up with his amazing declarations that are truly heartfelt and delivered with such style and panache.

For instance, he walked into our bedroom and swept his arm wide and exclaimed with awe, "this is beautiful!"

Then he climbed on top the bed, and clicked our lil reading lamps on at the head of the bed and sat back amongst the pillows and heaved a huge sigh, as tho he were relaxing, finally.

Whatta card!

And the lil'er guy is not yet verbal much, but has no problems very clearly conveying what his own needs, wants, and opinions are.

My friend? She was just so much window~dressing. Kind of her to bring them over, eh?

Ferah's 'ghan, a work in progress

So far, this is about four and a half feet long and about seven and a half foot wide. So it's wide enough for a king sized bed. I want to make it long enough to fit as well, so I'm only about half way there. But! I figure if I don't finish in time for the wedding on Saturday, that's ok; I'll just take it to her when I do finish it.

It's only a three hour drive, one way. Yea!!

presenting our new! improved! hah~u~jah! TeeVee

My Jerry's feeling poorly, but he will soon settle down in his recliner and watch some TV, on our new! improved! larger! model. We had a 27 inch that one day quit. It didn't so much as blow, ya know that explosive zzzap of light, as just quit. We swapped it out and replaced it with my "lil" tv, which was 20 inches. My Jerry was scowling and squinting at the screen as tho it were hiding something from him.

He kept his eye on the listserv for the vet school and aha! one day, he saw a graduating student was getting rid of their TV at the end of the semester for a very reasonable price. So My Jerry snatched it up and today, he went in to town and picked it up.

It's hah~UUUU~jah. 36 inches huge. So he made a few adjustments in the entertainment unit he built years ago, took out a board here and there to create a large enough space to accommodate this monster of a television.

And POOF! there it is, all hooked up, programmed, and now My Jerry is settled into his recliner, watching the next installment of the "bowery boys" while drinking a hot mug of lemon~ginger tea.

That Slip, he's something else!

And so is My Jerry.

*wink*

current project: Ferah's 'ghan {cont'd}

Here's a shot of progress, it's about eighty inches wide and who knows at this point how long it will be, not me, yet. There were a few days I didn't do much, if anything to it at all, with it~~so I didn't make as much progress as I probably should. sigh. If I want to get this done in time for the Event, then I best get busy, eh?

I decided after the first few color changes to pick strands randomly instead of some elaborate design using certain colors laid out in specific ways. I'm normally not very thrilled to crochet lots of holes into things, but Ferah is very creative and one of her favorite means is the use of windows with her paintings and photos. So I thought it was fitting in both color and design.

Whatcha think?

tech~tard

Well, for those of you who don't really know me, you might not realize that I shy away from the phone. In the not so recent past, I went for years where the ringer on my phone was in a permanent off position. I'd check voice~mail from time to time and if I absolutely had to make an out~going call, I'd have to psych myself up and give myself pep talks and even then, I'd be a complete wreck when I got off the phone.

I wasn't always like that. {I can hear my mom's thoughts right now, and they go something like this: ya got that right, pie~face!!} She could even tell who I was on the phone with, just from a moments walk~by of my end of the conversation. If I was giggling lots and not saying much, then I was on the phone with Carrie, a friend who is incredibly smart, unbelievably smart...but like most geniuses, she utterly lacked in common~sense. Why bother with the mundane when the abstract is so much more entertaining?

So just recently, within the past year, I've gotten where I can answer the ringing phone cold {that is without expecting an incoming call} and am more likely now to pick up the phone and make an out~going call than I had been. But I still prefer IM and eMail to phone calls. I can speak with a few folks on the phone, like mom, for a longer period of time. But generally, I'm not huge on idle chit~chat on the phone.

Which seems odd, given the way I can ramble on in the blog, or eMail, or IM, or in person.

My mom gave me a cell phone at Christmas cuz I am in the car lots and she felt even if I just kept it charged up and used it for cases of emergency, like being on the road, it would be a good idear to have a phone. So my brother set it up for me, cuz I'm a techno~tard and tend to do what I do well but things that I won't be doing all the time {like a one~time set~up}, I spazz on and get all d'uhm debbie, d'uhm. Ya know, sorta like the bubble~headed blonde I pretend to be most of the time becomes the actuality of the moment.

So she gives me the phone. He sets it up. And today, FOUR MONTHS later, I actually used it for the first time!!! I not only made an out~going call {most of which I couldn't hear very well cuz there was lots of noise on my end}, but I programmed in over thirty names and numbers. Cuz I thought that since I'll be traveling this summer, would help if I had the numbers at a touch for the folks in other states that I will be visiting. I even told my friend {the one from the gully~ditch/pit from last weekend} who I had called that YOU ARE THE FIRST PERSON I'VE CALLED USING MY CELL. EVER. to which she told me that I didn't need to scream cuz the mike has excellent capabilities of actually doing its job even tho it is placed somewhere near my cheekbone.

Perhaps I need to brush up on that.

The reason I couldn't hear very well was cuz I was calling from a lil restaurant right in the midst of the Cotton District Fest, and I was catching an incredibly amount of the crowd noise from outside as well as the folks who like me and My Jerry were seeking refuge from the blistering heat. Awesome fest. Lots of folks. I hope that My Jerry's oldest son, Jerry, does well today with all the sales and takes on some commissioned pieces too!!

mah haarZ

My Jerry took some pix of me this evening, cuz I was saying that I like it this way; a lighter pink, shot thru with darker shades and silverish shimmers on the top layer.

My hair is very very thick, so even short, I still have it thinned so that I can deal with the heat of Mississippi.






That's me sucking up some fan~breezes and you can see the general shape of the wedge in back {tho it looks like it's time for a trim!}.

Earlier today, I was thinking, trip to the barber next week, a must {cuz it feels like it's time for a trim!}.

current project: Freakee Fabulicious Ferah's wedding~ghan

My friend {yes, yes another one!} of ten years is getting married May first {beltane}. I'd known that she was planning to get married, but then I didn't hear anything for awhile about the wedding and I got vague responses when I did ask if she was still planning to, cuz they just weren't terribly sure financially if this was a good time to throw a bash. But all of her friends are pulling together and doing various things so even tho it is a bit of a pinch, it's a GO!! She'll be wed in a friend's beautiful estate, lovely flower garden of a wide~variety of blooms and greenery and there will be all sorts of wonderful folks and such. It's an evening affair and I think it will be very touching.

Ferah is a colorful person, joyous and vibrant. She is bold and strong and beautiful and stunning. So I decided to crochet her gift with tropical, bold, vibrant colors. Pictured here is a basket of raw materials and a smidge of the actual project draped over the chair. Hot pink, lime green, bright yellow, turqua, white, and pumpkin orange while make this a festive snuggly~cuddly! I'm using double~crochet and chain stitches only to create stripes of various widths with lil windows here and there. I'll post a pic of progress as it all comes together. Because I've got lots to do in a short period of time, I'll probably not post much in the next two weeks.

he'soooOOoooo sweet ta me

My Jerry is soooOOOooo sweet ta me. {sigh} Earlier tonight, he said that my hair with its confection cotton~candy pink and its whitish~yellow swirled and streaked together reminded him of a Chicago Peace Rose. {blink*blink}

awwwww {*blush*}

Sunday Drive

Today, my friend {oh~oh, number four!} and I met at City Bagel and had brunch. It was stellah, oh soooOOOooo good. Like good enough to make me cram all the goodness in to my mouth, down my throat, and into my belly where it set up housekeeping and made me happy while vacuuming wearing lipstick, pearls, and heels. With a coat~dress. That's how good City Bagel is. sigh.

My friend has only lived in this area for four months so I wanted to take her for a drive and show her a few things. Plus the day was perfect, weather~wise, and the wisteria is absolutely heavenly. So I pointed my lil Yaris northward and away we went!

We were chatting and so I missed the turn~off for the street that went down to the dog~park, that is behind the really nice kids' park. Since she has both, kids {one and three} and dogs {dachshunds}, I made the next turn and drove around the block. What a mistake that was!

There was a huge gully~pit from hell that surprised us both and made me remark that the seat belt locked up and I was probably gonna have a nice lil bruise on the left side of my throat. My friend was pretty surprised that my air~bags didn't deploy. But since the car seemed to drive fine, we just went on. I showed her the parks and we merrily went on our way.

Eventually we ended up at my place and when we went to leave, I looked at the front of my car and went, "wha.a.a.a.aaaaa...?" Actually, that's what my brain did. It stuttered in confusion.

My friend and I both gaped a bit. Then we began to poke and push and lift and look more closely. Apparently, the bottoming out tore the entire front end of my car down a smidgen and torqued it to the right a bit. Well, shit. sigh.

So I drove down to where My Jerry was {at the same park mentioned above} and he looked at it and ran his hand over it and poked about too. My friend, My Jerry, and I drove down to where the intersection was with the gully~pit from hell was. I parked and we got out and saw the pieces from another vehicle there. If I stood inside the gully, it's knee~deep. But from the stop~sign, you can't see the gully in the surface of the road, til you're right on top of it. It wasn't that My Jerry didn't believe me, it was just that I wanted him to see what exactly we were going on about and where exactly it was so when he contacts the city to complain, he can do so with accurate information and not just my opinion. Or my friend's opinion.

Fortunately, our insurance will cover this under collision and now we wait for the estimate from the appraiser. Geico is the best! So much for my Sunday drive!

My Jerry's sons

I was chatting with a friend {yes, a different one; that makes three now!} and describing some of My Jerry's oldest son's pottery, ceramics, and sculpture pieces. There is a Cotton District Fest next weekend, which is Bully Bash for MSU. He'll have a booth right on the main thoroughfare, so I hope he does really well with his sales and getting some more exposure.

So my friend had asked if I have any of his pieces and I said, "yep! {of course}" and so she asked to see some pix and I thought, "shit, I don't think I've taken any" and then I went thru all my digital pix and sho'nuff, 'twas the case. So today I remedied that. Here's the platter he gave us for our wedding last fall and in front of that, sits a sculpture that he gave me for Christmas. He's very versatile and hopefully I'll get some awesome pix of his booth next weekend that will show some more of his range.

See, part of the thing is that I am not huge on pix. So I don't generally remember to carry a camera and even if I did, then there's the matter of actually remembering to use it. Then when I do take pix, I tend to take them from every angle and flood the senses with that one subject.

Like when I took pix of the shadow~box that My Jerry's youngest son made for him. I had taken nine different pix of it, to show close~ups of each quarter and then the middle and then the whole thing and all that. So here is another, because earlier today, My Jerry hung it on the wall here in our breakfast nook, where my computer is and where we both spend a portion of our days.

I don't have any reason to be proud of them; it's not like I had anything to do with their achievements~so I can't claim ownership of being proud of them, but I am anyway. They are fine men and their parents raised them up right. I see My Jerry in each of them, and yet they are both two very different individuals in their own rights. And they both are stand~up guys who do what they do well!

So good on them!!

Date Day

Our Yaris was due an oil change and My Jerry needed to drop his lil truck off at Wm Wells for some work; so My Jerry took the afternoon off and we went to take care of the vehicles as well as have lunch and listened to an awesome CD.







First, lemme say this about My Jerry's lil truck. He usually only drives it when it rains and he doesn't want to get wet riding his bike or if he is hauling something that doesn't fit into his saddle bags or back~pack. So of course the first thing that went out on his lil truck in the past year was his windshield wiper motor. sigh. So it's in the shop.






About the CD: one of the Vet students is graduating this term and she made two CDs {one rock/blues and one country} that feature Mississippi is some way or another, including a song called "Oktibbeha" {the county we live in}. She gave them to people who have helped her and made her program easier for her to complete. So Jerry's CD has nineteen songs, ranging from Black Velvet {Miles} to Black Water {Doobie Brothers} and ZZ Top, Shirl Crow, JJ Grey and MoFro, Elvis Presley, Paul Simon,Unkle Kracker, and some other real finds. Altho she missed "Starkville" by the Indigo Girls, I'm hoping that on the country cd, she picked Johnny Cash's Starkville City Jail. We'll find out, cuz she gave that country themed one to My Jerry's boss.

At any rate, we listened to it this afternoon and both of us LOVED it.

AND whilst at Toyota, waiting for them to change the oil and rotate tires and align the car; My Jerry and I browsed thru a very cool catalog called UnCommonGoods. They have a website, check it! Some stuff is just really neat, and some stuff is made of recycled stuffs, and some is touching while others are humerous. I selected a few things to picture here, including a set of yoga~position bottle~stoppers, a motorcycle gnome~be~gone lawn ornament, high~heel cake server, construction plate and utensils, and spider clock.

current project: net bags

Next week is My Jerry's middle~daughter and her husband's first anniversary and since they are a groovee~kewl couple, I know they'd appreciate some reusable net product bags {that also have a myriad of other uses, like a small laundry bag for instance} and some water~bottle bags.

I made the net~bags similar to these pictured using the round Knifty~Knitter looms. The smallest ones, using the blue loom, make excellent water~bottle bags. I make them with cotton yarn and they remain light and airy and do not add to the weight nor bulk of the water~bottle. So you can tote it easily, whether hiking, biking, walking, or whatever.

The net~produce~bags will have a somewhat longer draw~string so that you can loop it over your hand, or have the option of slinging it over your shoulder or use it on a diagonal across your torso, like a traditional mail~bag. I've made a variety of these over the years, and have used them for anything that does not include sharp corners of boxes.

The Knifty~Knitter looms pictured here are available in a number of places, and online as well. I bought mine from Wal~Mart for about twelve bucks. They come in a set of four. Provo has many products, the round looms are just one set. The round looms tend to be sturdier than their long~looms, tho I love their purple rectangular loom just as much!

A couple~few years ago, my mom and I made hundreds of hats for charity. Most folks made newborn hats {using the blue loom} or small children hats {using the red loom}. But my mother figured some kids have big heads and adults need some too, so she did all her hundred+ hats using the adult loom {green}. I did some with the green loom, but most were using the yellow loom, cuz I used multiple strands of yarn and made them very thick without much stretch. Mostly I either did rimless {and let the wearer just roll up the edge to their preferences} or multi~rimmed hats with some having as few as two cuffs and as many as four on one hat {looks more like an eastern european or western asian hat}. So as you can see, there are many uses for the looms, not just hats or bags!

I'd made a bunch of wine~bottle bags at the Holiday Season to give as gifts {with or without said bottle of spirits}. The water~bottle bags are similar, but made with cotton, like the net~bags. The wine~bottle bags I made with using yarn, and more similar to the bear~bag pictured here {not mine, found online using google~images}. I will be making a bag with yarn, for their daughter, the same lil girl who was the recipient of the red~riding hood~cape of a few months back. Those yarn bags can also be used as gift bags, purses, etc. I thought that maybe the lil girl would like one that she can call her own and since the welding matters to her too, that she too should have a lil sumpin'~sumpin'. Besides I hate mailing a package without including sumpin for her too!

I may take some pictures before I box the bags up to send out to Portland; if so, then I'll post them, of course!

ah~MAZE~ing

Click here to see My Jerry's amazing weekend! His youngest son put so much thought and effort into this, he was raised~up right! Check it!

bunny trails pellets

Awesome weekend on so many fronts, in so many ways...it rocks! Since My Jerry will be blogging about a good portion, I'll defer to his future descriptions. Except to include a very minor mention here...before the pink was the purple.





Also, I wanted to post pix of what the afghan is like on the underside. As you can see, it's smoother and not quite as fractured with vines and stems and things.

My Jerry's youngest son and his wife graciously accepted this from us this weekend. I know they are moving to south Florida, yes; but I also know that in homes that are air~conditioned, sometimes the cool temps necessitate a lil sumpin~sumpin.

...but seriously folks...

Here it is, about twelve hours later and with a huge sense of satisfaction I've moved my table back into place and set my dining area back to rights. The living area has been restored to order and I feel so much more settled. And of course, I'm feel good about the project!

I've completed joining all the hexagon pieces together to form a queen~sized afghan as you can see here. I'm not exactly sure what I will do about finishing off the entire look with an edging, but at this point I thought I'd post this pix taken from the four corners of the bed. I'll be taking this down to the coast tomorrow to give to My Jerry's youngest son and his lovely wife.

No April Fool's.