Author Archives: tiger

Major Fender Bender, Fender Guitar That Is

March 29, 2008 – 7:54 am · Popularity: 18%

My Fender Guitar Here is a question for you. What do you do if you are in the thrift shop and you see a ridiculous deal on this?

Well, if you are me, you grab it fast!

Opportunity almost never knocks when you are ready to receive it. It is more like a neighbor, who, having something very exciting to show you, shows up when you are in your robe and slippers. Usually, to seize the opportunity when it comes you have to act very fast. Scott and I have both wanted to learn how to play the guitar for a very long time. We were not actively searching for a guitar, but this one found us. We promptly left the shop with it, went down to the guitar shop and had it re-strung and tuned.

Viola, a beautiful, sweet sounding guitar ready for playing. My first lesson is scheduled for Tuesday, 2:30pm. Wish me luck…

Update: well it seems that Scott is going to take on the leaning of the lessons, I will enjoy listening to him play. There are only so many things we can do in our life and listening to him play will be a good one for me.

Update: well Scott lasted about 4 months and did quite well, but his photography was far more developed than he could ever be as a musician so he is sticking with photography.

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Beauty in the Sunset and then a Rainbow

February 18, 2008 – 5:17 pm · Popularity: 13%

This week’s trip to the coast was very short, but oh so sweet. The weather was not cooperative enough to sit on the beach and knit, but the views the approaching storm gave us were absolutely wonderful.  The image below was taken by Scott while he was walking on the beach, with his phone.

Camera phones have come a long way, but he took out his phone while he was walking and snapped this shot of the sun going down.

Sunset on Gulf Shores Beach

I sat in the car and knitted while Scott did his daily beach walking. The wind was blowing very hard and although the temperature was not too bad, the wind was bone chilling.

We took a lovely drive down streets we had not ventured down before and stumbled upon a community cemetery. Some of you may think this odd, but I love cemeteries. It is just so fascinating wandering through them looking at the headstones, with the dates and sometimes the epitaphs on them. Some of them can be quite amusing since they are placed there by those left behind.

During our drive we stumbled upon these guys (gals) and I just wanted to jump right out of the car and join them in the fun! This is called Powered Para gliding and I think this would be such a cool hobby!!

Powered Para Glider

Although the trip was short this time, we were greeted by this when we arrived back at our house. Beautiful, no?

Rainbow after a storm over the farm

This rainbow came right over the property and the sun lit up the house across the pond.  This rainbow, which turned into a double and triple rainbow lasted for a good 5-10 minutes, longest and brightest we have seen in a long time.

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Mother’s Hospital Room in Dallas // Where Are We Wednesday

February 6, 2008 – 8:49 pm · Popularity: 10%

Today I planned to launch a new weekly post category that would give my readers a sense of where we are and what we are up to. We travel (or try to) quite a bit (or use to) and I wanted to be able to share photos and fun stuff about our trips.

Where Are We Wednesday - February 02, 2008

Interesting how life takes over and changes even the best laid plans. It turns out that I am posting this from my mother’s hospital room. Yesterday, my mother had surgery to remove potentially cancerous cells from the wall of her brain (basically results form her last surgery when she had a brain tumor removed). The surgery went very well and she is now in the room, just as talkative as ever. She will be going home tomorrow and we will be heading back to Alabama on Friday.  As I mentioned above, this is her second such surgery (and hopefully the last) over the last two years.  The first came about when she and her husband were in Colorado and she flew back to Dallas.  This time she will have to go through chemotherapy and radiation once she heals from her surgery.

There are no photos to share this time, just relief and thanks to all those who have sent their wishes and have been praying for her.  Next Wednesday, we will be somewhere else, hopefully more relaxing and enjoyable.  How about anyone else who has traveled or is traveling on Wednesday.  Doesn’t have to be something on this exact Wednesday, just let me know something exciting you did on “this” Wednesday, whenever and where ever you are on that day.

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Blazer is Home, Sailboat Was Beautiful

December 17, 2007 – 6:53 pm · Popularity: 9%

Marina at ChristmasAnd, so are we. He was so happy to leave the vet doggy camp that he barked all the way home and has not moved from his bed since 9am this morning.

Blazer was at doggy camp because Scott and I took a couple of days off to go down to the boat. Blazer turns green on boats so he gets to visit doggy camp instead.

After the Thanksgiving non-event, we were ready to get back down there and hang out, if just for a few days. All of our time was not spent lounging around though. We took advantage of the 80 degree December weather phenomenon to get out to the beach and shoot some video for the upcoming knitting tutorials.

We knitted and filmed and enjoyed the completely deserted beach and just as we were finishing up the video recording for the day, the rain started falling. Heavier and heavier it fell, ushering in a cold front that would bring in incredibly strong winds that would rock the boat all night in it’s slip. Temperatures were in the 30’s the next morning when we awoke.

Unlike our previous boat, however, this boat is quite watertight and has a heater/air-conditioning unit that works beautifully. We stayed warm and dry inside all night while the wind and rocking waves lulled us to sleep.

Now it is time for us to get ready to head to Dallas, TX for Christmas with my family. We are leaving in three days, which means that Blazer gets to return to doggy camp to visit with all his friends again. Since he does not have Aubie here with him any more he has become quite the cling-on and seems to need company 24/7.

Anyway, we are going to be gone about a week and hopefully we can get in some good knitting video recording while we are gone. The Civil War Shawl KAL and the Secret of the Stole II KAL have to be ready to go in January, so it looks like a working Christmas holiday on the road for us.

Have a wonderful holiday and we will see you on the flip-side.

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The Thanksgiving Non-Event for 2007 and the Marina

November 20, 2007 – 4:38 pm · Popularity: 11%

Cooked and carved the turkey on Saturday, check. Made the stuffing, and the baked sweet potatoes, too, check. Sealed it all up in bags to freeze so we could have it on the boat on Thanksgiving Day, check. Loaded the car with clothing, food, ice chest, etc., check. Made sure to take computer to the boat too, so Secret of the Stole KAL members wouldn’t miss their final hint this Friday, check.

Leave on Monday and make the 4.5 hour drive to the marina, check. Upon arrival, found out the marina wi fi was not working and would not be working until after the holiday week was over, CHECK. Made the 4.5 hour drive back to the house in the same evening, of course. What else were we supposed to do? Visions of Secret of the Stole members coming up the road to get me with lighted torches and pitchforks in hand went through my head.

Mr. K and I will be having our “leftover, prepared ahead of time” Thanksgiving dinner back here at the house. Luckily, Mr. K and I embrace change so it’s all good…

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Home Invasion or a Plague of the Ladybugs Has Arrived

November 14, 2007 – 6:08 pm · Popularity: 14%

ladybugs I love ladybugs (or as Scott refers to them, manbugs). However, this is ridiculous! There are millions of them on every window, inside and out. This was the best shot I could get, but trust me, they are everywhere. On the bright side, we had NO mosquitoes this year so this is a wonderful alternative!

When I was little, and I found a ladybug, it was customary to release it after making a wish. Somewhat like blowing all the seeds off of a dandelion. Man, if that really worked, I could have anything and everything today!!

We have started to suck them up with a shop vac and slowly deposit them out in the yard somewhere but that just isn’t going to do it at this point.  There really are just hundreds and hundreds of these lovely little lady bugs and they can creep and crawl into any tiny little crack anywhere and they are covering our bathroom and bedroom which are outside walls in the house.  They are cute, but this is a little rediculous.

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DK at Work Listing Books on Amazon

October 3, 2007 – 12:51 am · Popularity: 11%

Hi there, this is DK’s DH (Scott) and I thought while she was fast asleep thinking up new pattern designs I would post a sort of behind the scenes photo I took of DK hard at work. She has been really looking forward to getting started on the Secret of the Stole KAL (as I am sure all of you are as well), just a few more days to go now.

So, here you go… as long as she doesn’t delete the post once she finds out it is here :)

DK the Nautical Knitter

Yes, this is actually her desk! That little gray square thing she is looking at is actually a laptop she uses to correspond with all of you (probably doing so right now), the one in the background is where she does her “work”. You see which one she is using. “Did you read that book I left for you the other day sweetie”? :)

Good luck to everyone doing the Secret of the Stole KAL, it will be loads of fun, and may even have some great surprises along the way. Scott (hopefully still the DH)

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Ever have one of those weeks?

September 27, 2007 – 10:48 pm · Popularity: 10%

This past week turned out to be one of those weeks for us. Throughout all the details that follow I was able to somehow keep my sanity and keep my schedule in regards to the Secret of the Stole KAL. A huge THANK YOU and a big CYBER HUG go out to my friend Reba for helping me keep the group on an even keel during our travels. So, here is what happened.

AubieIt all began on Tuesday when we took our dog Aubie to the vet because he wasn’t feeling well. As I said in the last post we were leaving on Friday for a 10 day trip to Colorado and we needed to find out what was wrong with him so we would know whether to board him or not. I won’t go into all the particulars, but, on Wednesday we were informed that his one or more of his organs was failing and the dog that just the day before was following me around the house, would not make it through the day. We rushed to the vet and I was able to hold him while he breathed his last. The dog that gave me over 14 years of happiness and completely unconditional love was gone.

Blazer and Aubie in their most common position

Since neither DH, myself, or our remaining dog, Blazer, wanted to be in the house with the memories of Aubie everywhere, we decided to leave a day early for our trip. The trip to the cabin was quiet and uneventful. I was planning on knitting up a storm and couldn’t manage to do but a few rows. Blazer was given the king’s throne in the car and seemed to enjoy it. After 1500 miles and way too much junk food, we arrived at the cabin in Creede, CO (altitude 11,000 ft) mid-day on Saturday.

On Sunday, we found Blazer lying very still and lethargic on his bed in the motor home. This is highly unusual for him since he has for the past 14 years been extremely vocal and interested in anything that was going on around him. He slowly emerged out of his grogginess and we thought it was just an “altitude” issue. Until later that evening, when we were checking on him and he had a seizure, stiffened up his body, flailed his head back and briefly stopped breathing. When the seizure was over he was once again lethargic and mostly unresponsive, leading us to believe that that was what had happened earlier in the day as well.

The following morning we called our vet and he basically told us that we should get him off the mountain and bring him in asap. We were stunned and saddened that Blazer was now ill and we would be cutting our trip so short. Tuesday, we left Creede and 1500 miles later we arrived back at home. Blazer went to the vet today and, wouldn’t you know it, all his blood work turned out “normal”. He is not diabetic, anemic, suffering from a heart murmur or even heart worms. That was the best news we could have had this week. We will hear about his thyroid test soon and if that comes back clean then the next thing the vet said we could do is a CAT scan to check for a brain tumor. I found this to be a point of amusement since it was an interesting name for a scan of a dog’s brain. A CAT scan is not happening on a 14 year old dog in my house, so we will just have to watch him closely and keep him company from now on since his brother is gone.

William’s BirthdayOn a brighter note, when we arrived at the cabin William, our grandson, and his parents were already there, as were my mom and dad. It was William’s birthday (2 yrs) and we had a great time visiting with him. The festivities and family time took our minds off our loss, if just for a little while.

To the left is a three generation photo of William, Bryan (his father in the background), and Scott (my DH and Bryan’s dad). The photos we took of William and of Blazer while we were there are just priceless and I will post more of them soon on our personal blog Door Number Three for anyone who is interested.

All in all, it was just one of those weeks…

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We Are Officially Amazon Book Sellers Now that We Have Inventory

August 17, 2007 – 4:09 pm · Popularity: 12%

We have been slowly wading through the books and posting them for sale. Problem is that when you list them for sale you have to house them somewhere until they sell. Here is our temporary solution. Yes, free postal supplies come in handy for more than just shipping. We really could have used a two car garage.

Bookshelves

Bookshelves

At some point we will have to get an outside building or unit for the book inventory or keep the books held in inventory at this level. There just isn’t any more room anywhere but for now this will work. The bookshelves seem to be a little wobbly but we have them tied off in several areas. So I am not sure if this is what a typical amazon seller looks like, I don’t recall seeing photos of any of our fellow amazon sellers on their own blogs, but this is what this amazon seller looks like.

The sorting order was something we worked on for a while and have not come to any great conclusion as to what is best and easiest for pulling.  Right now they are all in alphabetical order by title (which isn’t easy at all with books that have multiple titles).  This may change as we move along but I hate changing the pulling order after the fact, it just takes a long time.

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Blazer, Our Beloved Old Basset Hound in Action

July 20, 2007 – 3:07 pm · Popularity: 7%

We no longer have any human children in the house. However, we do have two dogs that have been with us for almost 14 years. Our Cocker Spaniel, Aubie and our Basset Hound, Blazer. The dogs are very much family to us and are getting up in years now. This, of course, means the beginning of illnesses, injuries and all the issues that come with aging pets. In some ways I think they know how much we care about their well being and sometimes it seems that they like to exploit this for everything it is worth, especially the basset, usually resulting in an extra biscuit, extra special dinner time, etc.

Here is Blazer after his recent surgery to remove a lump of skin cancer from his shoulder. Doesn’t he look like a pathetic thing?

Blazer the Basset

Blazer

Blazer after surgery

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