Welcome to my new world!

Hello and welcome to the new home of As Kat Knits!

First off, I need to thank Steve for all his help and his willingness to spend a couple of hours on his weekend tweaking this place to my preferences and answering my questions without complaining once – and I had plenty of tweaking and questions!

As you can see, he is a genius when it comes to web development and beyond that is the best friend a person could ever have.

You will find things here that were not on my old digs, and you will find some things that were there –  but all are improvements, in my opinion. First off, you will note that my preferred reading now has its own page!  Watch for updates to that page as I finish importing your blog links. If you want your link added, please let me know!

So, get a cup of coffee, look around, and please do not forget to update your rss feeds with my new address!

Happy Monday everyone!

To Sotomayor or not to Sotomayor…

Wow.

Just wow.

January 20th was truly a day of incredible change for America. Finally, we have a leader whose face is a true representation of the face of America – the WASP image fading and in its place; a richer, more vibrant tapestry was slowly taking shape.

America is a vivid and diverse tapestry, but our leaders have not been a true reflection of that diversity. President Obama has been working on revealing the lush image in an amazingly and incredibly intelligent way. At long last, we have a Hispanic selection for the nation’s highest court, one that Mr. Obama described as a candidate with empathy for “people’s hopes and struggles.”

Wow.

Empathy in a justice, what a novel idea.

I am more than impressed with her and him!

I would say that the naysayers would have a tough time taking her down.

I have a feeling she well knows how to rise above the fray, with her eyes fixed on the prize nothing could get in her way.

Let the Republicans cry foul, I think you more than measure up, Sonia Sotomayor!

So, Gentle Reader – I Sotomayor, do you?

On a side note, I have done some remodeling here at Casa Del KatKnits; there may be more so stay tuned!

Excuse me, but have you seen my snark?

The past several weeks I have felt decidedly lacking in a plethora of areas in my life. I have not been able to put my finger on just one thing that seems to have me “off my game” but rather a flurry of things seems to have put me off track. It appears that my usual snarky self has gone into hibernation to some far off place and is refusing to return until I get my proverbial “poop in a group.”

In an attempt to woo my quick witted, cunningly cutting Mistress of Sarcasm back I thought a bit of cathartic writing ala Elizabeth Edward’s might do the trick.

It seems that the past few weeks have been all too anticlimactic since Erin left; there was all this hype building up to our meeting, and the time we spent together seemed idyllic in a Camelot kind of way. Now, do not get me wrong, things have not tanked between us, but it is somehow not the same talking on the phone or emailing each other. However, I have honestly felt that something is missing since she left – namely her!

Yes, I know that I need to be more removed than that, but somehow that is no longer possible and when I remind my selfish self that I need to remember my place – not surprisingly, Miss It’s All About Me showed up in full force when my snark checked out.

Now, Gentle Reader, for those of you who are mothers clearly understand that when you become a mother it is no longer ever all about you, but rather all about someone else – namely your children. I know this well, having raised three of them and in the few instances that I somehow foolishly forgot that fact; they rapidly reminded me!

I feel a bit like a Mother-in-law and transporting myself back to a lovely frank conversation I had with my soon to be Mother-in-law – she said she did 2 things well; wearing beige and keeping her mouth shut! My friends, I can only tell you that I do not wear beige well, nor am I well versed in keeping my mouth shut – so it seems a Herculean task to bite my tongue and let Erin direct our course. It reminds me of the patience of Penelope keeping hearth, home, and entertaining the enemy all with a cool aplomb while Odysseus was off on one grand adventure! I just need to find some of that patience and cool aplomb!

The school year has also been winding down and it brings the end of my Heidi’s high school career, which I am having a decidedly difficult time with. We have had a semester of “lasts,” which I have to confess make my usually unfailingly cheerful self decidedly blue. A friend even asked me if I needed a “hormonal tune-up” when I had a mini-break down when talking with them. I wonder if there is such a thing as a 50,000-mile tune up for the hormonally challenged. Yes, well, I will add a call to Barb to my ever-growing list of things to complete once Heidi’s graduation is over! I think it will fall in to slot 273,456,988 – that means I should be able to get that appointment scheduled sometime after the year 2012 arrives!

As for Heidi, she is doing her part all too well in “Operation Move Out From Home Soon” – and I alluded to in my last blog post, I vacillate between a melancholy mother yearning for that little girl that I could draw into my lap to cuddle and the Joan Crawford rendition of Mommy Dearest. I begin, at times, to have an inkling of understanding on why animals eat their young! Suffice it to say that, yes, I am indeed the most unintelligent person on earth – unless it happens to be a day when Bank of Mom is needed! I am thankful that she has managed to find work at our local Payless Shoe Store, however I am just warning you all that I have a budding Imelda Marcos in the making here – someone want to alert the Philippines, please??? Do you all see the correlation in the increase in attempted withdrawals from Bank of Mom? Yeah, I know I do. When she smiles and turns on the charm, I just want to have one tenth of Ebenezer’s Scrooginess!

For years, I have muttered under my breath – “thank goodness for Sam” foolishly believing that he was the “easy” child. I was so looking forward to him being around all summer long, however I did not consider the challenged job market in West Michigan and his trying to add to his college fund and the only job he has been able to find thus far is up north. This news almost did me in, truly. So, practically overnight I will go from a Nester to an empty Nester! This was not good news at all until I realized that I would need to increase my daily fiber requirement once I fall into that category – and with that, visions of Masham, Polwarth, and Wensleydale began to dance in my head!

I guess I will have to work on finding a cottage-like place up north to rent for a week and bring Bria along so we can get our “Sammy Fix.” There could be worse things, right?

Can I get a protest, please?

Who is excited besides me that there our President gave the commencement speech at Notre Dame last week?

Well, I am off the charts excited for a number of reasons!

No, I have not become a closet Notre Dame fan – but, I am utterly enamored of our President and the calm confidence that emanates from him and surrounds him like an aura.

There in the audience were protesters – yes, in the audience.

Protesters.

Speaking freely.

Protesting.

No government officials had relegated them to a “sanctioned site” some dozen blocks away.

They were there, in the building.

Moreover, our President handled them with gracious confidence.

Democracy in action… just a few miles south of my house.

It almost makes me giddy!

Last week was a banner week – not only were there protesters, our President actually mentioned Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers. In a sentence that actually made sense! In the 8 years of the Bush Presidency, I do not believe I heard him mention the civil unrest there once.

It is refreshing to have someone in office that cares about what is going on in the world around him.

Very refreshing.

Adding to all this excitement are what have been a month of “lasts” for my household – as in Heidi’s last classes, Heidi’s last concert, and Heidi’s last day of school – a momentous week to be sure. I have been unexpectedly melancholy about her graduating. I have shed a tear or two, vacillating between wanting to wring her neck and wishing she was just starting high school. Fortunately, the feelings of wishing she was just starting high school have been winning – so she will live to graduate on June 1st!

In addition, there was knitting…in case you were all wondering. FLS is off the needles and on the body and I love it! Pictures coming soon, I promise! I would knit this again! It is the perfect sweater!

This just might become the Summer of Sweaters – I am breezing along with my other summer sweater. Sleeves soon to be cast on…

Also, just to keep things interesting, I have cast on Indigo Ripples II – I have about 3 inches and knitting! Last time, silky wool, this time a little denim-y number!

All this in a week with overtime! Okay – So just, do not expect a well dusted home… seriously.

Anyway, I am off to bed – have a good holiday weekend all!

Springtime in Holland…

Springtime in Holland…

I have had several quite startling conversations with people recently about some topics that on the surface seem to have nothing to do with each other, however it could be that they are indeed, more closely linked than one would imagine.

Therefore, I ask you, Gentle Reader, where you fall in the following topics. I am seriously interested in your responses.

Why? Because, someone told that I represent a minority in my beliefs and I find that incomprehensible. Not from the standpoint that my belief is in the minority, because seriously – I often find myself in the minority. Rather because it seems to me there is an obvious right and wrong.

It all began over breakfast with a friend a couple of weeks ago, when she mentioned the termination of Rick Wagoner and included the word Dictatorship in the same sentence. Curious phrasing, to be sure, and I tried to joke that I did not believe that we woke up in Cuba. She did not laugh.

She went on to express her extreme dislike with what President Obama is proposing with his national health care plan. She went on to lament that any form of a nationalized health care plan would equate itself to no care, like our poor neighbors in the world for whom the government controls health care.

At this point, for me the conversation became heated.

I pulled out my soapbox, climbed to the top, and shared with her my thoughts on health care…

What we have is not working.

At least it is not working for the majority of us.

I have been saddened to see more “self-pay” patients who are coming to the hospital much sicker, requiring hospitalization and treatments that are more rigorous. This has become such a problem, at least for the hospital that I work for that they recently started a new initiative just to encompass the people who find themselves without any health care at all. I am not sure how many other hospitals are doing this, but I can tell you that I am proud to work for an organization that is taking steps to help the people who live in West Michigan! If you are interested in reading about the details of MetroCare, you can find the link here.

Lastly, on the Torture Debate that seems to be everywhere you go. I heard this report on NPR. When I brought it up to discuss with a friend, he shocked me with his statement that my beliefs were in the minority and that a majority of my fellow Americans think there is nothing wrong with torturing another human being. Yeah, if that does not depress you, I do not know what does.

I guess you can just call me a dictator-loving socialist who would not hurt a flea, much less another person!

I am just looking for a kinder gentler world, really…much kinder and miles gentler.

On a lighter note, I took a weaving class from the amazing and incredible Jane Patrick of Schacht Spindle Co. fame… she is a great teacher and add to that the opportunity to spend the weekend at Beth’s shop and you have the ingredients for a most remarkable weekend. I learned volumes. All I have to say is that what happens in Mecca stays in Mecca… however; the look on Lousmith’s face when I paid him a dollar was worth the price of admission!

Spring has been quietly arriving here in West Michigan and it is more than welcome. I leave you with a shot from the Crab Apple tree in my front yard!

Do not forget to share your thoughts on health care and torture; I am eagerly awaiting your input to this ongoing debate!

Spring '09 by you.

Have a great weekend!

The spoils of failure?

I have been closely following the taxpayer bailout of A.I.G, as you all have more than likely been doing also, and I have been stunned with each new turn of events.

Okay, truth be told, I have been more than stunned – outraged might be a better word.

Being a hard working, taxpaying citizen, who with my fellow Americans has become an unwilling co-owner in A.I.G. ; the recent news has me more than a bit confused with the idea that there is a reward for failure!

I do not know about you all, but in any review of my work performance, not once have I been rewarded for failure, and most certainly would never expect to receive compensation for putting my company in financial jeopardy, nor would anyone with an ounce of common sense! Yet, it seems that this is exactly what is happening. Moreover, beyond that, a clamor has gone up that there is a contract to pay, so pay we must, it seems.

Yes, that is right, there are, evidently, contracts that state bonuses are due even if the employee looses billions of dollars and pushes their employer over the edge of financial responsibility, causing a federal bailout to keep them afloat.

Excuse me?

I mean really, do they expect us to believe that?

What I would really like to know is why these people are still employed and are still drawing salaries, much less getting bonuses – some of which were in the neighborhood of $3 million dollars! I do not know about you, but from my perspective $165M is a hell of a lot of money and that is what A.I.G. paid out thanks to the taxpayer. Although, a reporter from the New York Times pointed out on the Today Show this morning that the majority of the payouts did not exceed $1,000.00.

I suppose that to someone earning upwards of $500K, a thousand dollars is chump change.

Maybe that is chump change for some, but I would hazard a guess that for the majority of American’s a thousand dollars would indeed be a windfall.

It appears to me that there is such a vast divide between the “haves and the have not’s” today that they have put themselves in a bubble and have been floating around in something that does not even resemble reality and frankly is more like Peter Pan’s Never, Never Land.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to shame these wastrel’s into giving the funds back and President Obama is up in arms and wants the contracts torn up – okay, good ideas, but it is a bit like closing the barn door after all the horses have gotten out. There is clamoring from the legislature to put a new law on the books to prevent this from happening, another idea with some merit but it seems a day late and several billion dollars short, if you ask me!

I do not know about you, but it seems to be that if one looks at this from a moral and ethical standpoint no bonus payout ever would have happened. Yet how do you get a group of people who obviously do not have morals or ethics to give them back or even to admit that they are the least deserving of any bonus compensation? A group of people who have obviously not given one thought at all about a contract that probably required them to be fiscally responsible for their employer or the shareholders, so tearing up a contract that has no value at all is likewise meaningless. Similarly, the legislature of morality and ethical behavior seems futile.

Once again, with the taxpayer held over a barrel in a damned if we do, damned if we don’t predicament it appears we have few choices.

It seems to me that when one is dealing with someone for whom reality does not exist would be t0 approach the situation from his or her level. In that vein, we should consider asking Tinkerbell to transport them all from Never, Never Land for a visit with Alice in Wonderland where I will gladly play role of the Queen of Heart’s and bring back the guillotine where off with their heads will be the agenda for the day!

In addition, if A.I.G. is concerned about how to replace the casualties they need look no farther than the ranks of the unemployed  which I believe contains a multitude of worthy candidates!

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