I'd be an idiot if I didn't blog today

I don't have pictures. I don't even have a long witty story to tell. All I have to say is that, I can't wipe the smile from my face.

I keep looking at today from two different angles. First, we usher out, one of the most awful and embarrassing periods in American history. George W. Bush, who woulda thought he could be that bad. Second, we welcome to the White House, not only the first African American president, but a man, so competent, it sort of blows my mind.

The fact that yesterday we also celebrated Dr Martin Luther King's birthday makes today's Inauguration especially sweet. Even the kids realized the timing. This morning at breakfast Alex said "you know, this wouldn't have been possible without Dr King" and Cassidy chimed in "And John F. Kennedy!" and Dylan, in all his 7 year old wisdom... "Mama, did you know, Dr King changed rules?!?! Did you know that African Americans had to sit at the BACK OF THE BUS? And Dr King helped change the rule? Mama, did you know Barack Obama is AFRICAN AMERICAN?!?!"

You could literally see the that realization on his face. That a generation ago, without Dr King, Rosa Parks, and a VERY long list of people of all races and backgrounds.. this day, would not be possible.

So Happy Inauguration Day America.  Today we celebrate. Tomorrow we get our hands dirty, trying to fix the last 8 years of mistakes and incompetence.

Talk about "bringing integrity back to the White House".

And, it's that I'm just not a blogger anymore. I don't look forward to it like I once did, but rather it feels like this huge chore. I think about it all the time, but just can't muster the energy to actually load the admin page and type something.

Partly it's that I've been in a perpetual bad mood for months now (with no end in sight). It dampens my blogging mood when I have almost nothing good to blog about and there is only so much bitching I can do here without risking y'all getting sick of me and my bitching. Worse, I don't read my friends' blogs much anymore either, and when I do, I never comment. A rut, for sure.

So, while I'll still try to put something here every once in a while, I am on Twitter. And Facebook. And of course Flickr and Ravelry. So i'm not totally "off the grid".

Maybe I'll come around.. I don't know. It seems a shame to keep this thing up for five years and then quit, but I've got nothing good to say. Why publicly harp about my miserableness?

This day? I'm not really a fan, and I don't think that fact is any big secret. In fact, if we hadn't had children, I'd be happy to act as if it were any ol' regular day. Its gotten worse over the years, and this year is no exception. Its as if some cosmic force just wants me to hate this season, because every year, some heaping pile of crap falls in our laps to deal with.
Because of the seemingly yearly pile of crap, I'm typically a great big sourpuss from Thanksgiving through New Years, Richard thought he'd try to cheer me up with some "Carla Approved" Christmas music, complete with an um, colorful title...

I love it. It's made me smile entirely too much, and I listen to it often.

Now on to the obligatory pictures..

The tree.. before the onslaught

Cassidy, excited over her new Hannah Montana light up fashion plates type thingamajig

Alex with is much anticipated and pined over roboraptor

Dylan scored Megatron.

Connor, loved everything.

Christmas eve was... interesting. After waiting for what seemed like forever for the kids to fall asleep, Richard had already fallen asleep, and I was left to deal with the Santa set up by myself. Then halfway through finishing wrapping, before I could even get the previously wrapped gifts from the attic, the massive wind storm took out the power.  Yeah.. scaling the attic steps with a flashlight and a wrapped Roboraptor - I wouldn't suggest doing it any time soon.

Two hours of Santa set up in the dark, crawl into bed dead tired.. and power comes back on.

So, whatever you celebrate, or if you don't celebrate anything at all, I hope y'all had a great day.

.. when I'm not blogging.

Truth is, I'm only blogging right now for two reasons. One, I actually have something to say. Two, I've now received FOUR Christmas cards, commenting on my lack of blogging (HA!) Not to mention, actual phone calls. I have to admit I'm feeling the love.. it's nice to be missed.

As for the something to say, I've been soooo uber busy holiday knitting, and I mean BUSY. I planned it out in three groups. Group one and group two.. DONE. Group three's knitting to start tomorrow, ending with a mad sprint to Wednesday. I have it all under control. I can do this! I can!

The bad news? Because everything I've knit lately is a gift, I can't show off anything yet. Next week though... lots of pictures and details.

More of something to say? I designed a pattern. It's absolutely nothing special.. just a basic ribbed hat. But there was a need. See, Richard has a pretty big head. As does his dad, and my brother. Knitting hats for them can be downright difficult without adding pattern repeats or tweaking stitch gauge to compensate for several more inches than the typical hat circumference. Such a pain in the arse.. AND I'd never get exactly what I was looking for. Something was always "off" about the finished item. So I figured, that's it.. I'm just writing my own...

Presenting... Gargantuan Melon. It's a free .pdf download, both here on the blog, and on Ravelry. Because dammit, I'm not the only knitter who needs to knit for obnoxiously sized noggins. The great big bonus? Because this hat is so springy, not only does it fit a gargantuan melon, it also fits a child sized head! Multi-purpose... I love it, and I didn't even plan for that.

I'll try to post again this week... but there is that mad sprint and all.

I had hoped to blog a few times this week, but I can't take a decent picture to save my life for some reason. I'll try harder after Thanksgiving break. I hope.

And now starts "Carla's Whiny Season"

It was bound to happen soon. Last night we even stoked up the fireplace for the first time this season.

Bleh.

I can't get this song out of my head today. I don't know why.

Twice in less than 7 days. Wow! Are you shocked? I am!

So, I'm still up on the post election high. President-Elect Obama. I love the sound of that. And, I'm extremely proud to have put all the time I was able to spare, into helping the campaign. I have very high hopes, but I'm not an idiot either. Things are likely to get worse before they get better... particularly economically. These times, they scare me... a lot.

In other news, we made frybread this weekend. Thanks to Laura for emailing me MY recipe when I found myself unable to find MY own damn copy! I did find it eventually, but now I have it stored in my email folders as well as on my cookbook shelf. Whew!

So we made up a single batch to go along with some chicken chili (no pictures because I'm an idiot) and it was an awesome pairing. We used this recipe.. sort of. A few things we did different were, dried northern beans from the pantry vs. canned ones. A WHOLE LOT LESS cumin than the recipe calls for because I hate cumin. No canned chiles.. instead we chopped up a jalapeño and cooked it with the onions. The final step of adding the sour cream was the secret to making this a fabulous dish. Its definitely a keeper!

Now one of the best things about making frybread, is the leftovers. They make awesome sammiches, and even better toasted the next morning for breakfast...

And if that isn't enough fat on a plate..

pair it with a bowl of steel cut oats, sprinkled with a bit of sugar, and a splash (or two) of half and half. Its my favorite breakfast, especially on a cold morning.

I also started a new project last night, mostly to escape some of the never ending knitting of this year's spinning guild holiday project, which I can't show you yet.. obviously. Its halfway done, and I have plenty of time. Don't look at me that way.. I needed a diversion!

You may remember this handspun (or maybe you don't - I'll remind you) I tried to knit it into the boutique scarf (rav link here) some time in the last year, but it wasn't the right yarn, and I frogged it. Then I tried to make a mini clapotis (rav link here) out of it unsuccessfully. But after picking up the new Interweave Holiday issue last night, I think I have a winning pattern: Hourglass Eyelet Scarf (Rav link here). I'm really loving it, especially the easy 4 row repeat. This represents only about an hours worth of knitting last night, so I can see it going pretty quickly, which is just the sort of diversion I needed.

I only heard about My Morning Jacket through my friend Kira (Hi Kira!) and wow, was I missing out. Its a bit jammy (and you know I like that) plus you can hear a bit of Coldplay in there, and definitely some Allman Brothers (Coldplay and Allman Brothers Band, never thought I'd put those two sounds together!)

Anyway, I really like it and if you do too, there is plenty more to be heard on imeem! ETA: I'm not sure why imeem hates me lately with the shortening of my embeds, sorry about that.. the full song is on imeem however.

P.S. Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!

"In the unlikely story of America there's never been anything false about hope."

- Barack Obama

It hasn't been called yet (officially anyway), but I couldn't ask for a better birthday present.