the dead...penn state and egypt in one week!

the penn state show was beyond amazing. honestly, the one thing that could have made it truly great was if jerry were still alive.....then again they probably would not have played an obama benefit. see, folks get all uppity when you discuss how the dead were not a political group. they always come back at you with counter culture and how that was a political statement, BUT they never came out and openly endorsed anyone because they knew they had big influence over people and wanted to make sure people decided for themselves, as that is truly at the heart of what the dead stood for....being your own person. that was their political statement, not who you should vote for, or who they back..... so, i digress, as usual, back to the show...... the set, one huge set, was amazing.... the almans were good, smokin even, then a long break with some obama rally up, then he had a prerecorded message where he introduced the boys...

they came out and each one came out and cheers erupted...it was amazing!

billy and phil hugged

they tuned

then it began....

truckin
us blues
help
slip
frank
playin
dark star
st stephen
unbroken chain
other one
throwin
playin reprise

encore-
touch of grey (and billy kept playing with micky, when they sang the verse he would rub the sides of his grey hair! and as a reference to the "joke" obama made before the show about how the campaign has given him a touch of grey, or something along those lines)
not fade away



we checked into our hotel room in the afternoon and spent the day on the lot, seeing old friends, celebrating birthdays and other such wonderful things! we got back about 3am, and went to sleep.

the next moring we went to penn state book store to pick up a few things for my mom and juju bean, hit up a farmers market around the corner for some amazingly tastey cave aged cheddar from 20 mins from penn state, got some organic yum green beans and a jar of organic salsa for dad (the cheese was for him too, and they polished that off shortly after I handed it over!)

we ate at baby's and I had hush puppys with fried shrimp, not as good as down south, but still good!

yesterday, i purchased tickets for NYE with Boyy & Phil. I have to wait til next week to get the Dec 30th show, but that is fine, as long as I know I have NYE, I don't care....now to arrange the flights, hotle and everything else!


oh yeah, and yesterday was bobby's birthday!

happy birthday bobby!

scones and such

a lovely scone is just a great way to make people smile.

my father had his surgery and has not really been eating like before, with good reason, as his chest was opened, heart removed and so on....

so today while juju was dancing, i ran up to the most wonderful breakfast/lunch place in town, stella g's.
now most places would kill to have a shop like this, but they moved here to retire and be close to their grandkids, and lucky us, she is a renowned pastry chef and he has i forget how many stars, chef. they decided to open a little breakfast place to take up time, and well, it is divine!

last trip there about 4 weeks ago, i had the special sour cream waffle with blueberry's and turkey sausage. simply heavenly....my other had eggs benedict, lee had the other special, breakfast burrito, and dad had a simple egg brekkie with hash and such. everything was beyond good.

i stopped in and purchased three freshly made from scratch scones, lemon cream, bluberry with orange glaze and nutmeg current. they wrapped it in a lovely pastry box with a big ribbon! it looked so fancy. my mom and dad were so happy when we returned, their little ballerina bouncing into the house in her leotard, sweater and skirt in pink, carrying the lovely pink ribbon box filled with crumbly delights!

so, i guess the moral of the story is, when in hackettstown, home of the m&m, go to stell g's and eat, but be sure to grab some scones for later!

i shall be released

finally blogger saw fit to release me from my spam hold....
took about a week, but i was able to post and save to my blog, which was nice.

i hope to get my new patterns in today so i can get those listed, but you know what? i am going to go relax and check back on the 'puter later today...

grateful dead converse!!!

i was flipping through this awesome magazine i am subscribed to called missbehave, when low and behold in their cool sneaker section were grateful dead sneakers!
i did a little web searching and poof, today my new skull and roses high top chucks arrived!!!

they are so nice, even the insides are nice and the patch is sewn on, not that weird rubbery thing they normally have.
my next pair will be the ice cream and possibly either a stealie in black, or an owsley bear in low top black...the decisions are tough!

monday is a holiday and juju is off from school, but i will be away at the rock for change show in penn state!!!!

i am not sure yet who i want to vote for, honestly, but hey, if barak can get the boys back together after the "blow up" in 2004, i am all for it!

wow, i am very excited today!!!!

business and such

i went ahead and ordered a bunch of new patterns from sublime and suprise!!! she had released 4 new ones....

i am really excited about this as i always love new stuff!

juju has been having a good time with my brother since he came in for the operation on my father. my father, however, has made a miraculous recovery and had a pacemaker put in on friday and was relased (GASP) saturday afternoon!
we had no idea he would be released so early, in fact i stayed home waiting to hear if i could see him as i had the sniffles (and still do), when my mother called and said to bring clothes, he was getting sprung at 4 pm....good thing i got there early, because they literally sprung him at 4! usually hospitals are awful at getting folks discharged, but not there!

so dad has been here...he was walking saturday and sat at the table and at with us...since then he has been moving mroe and feeling better, though he is sleeping in the living room on the chair, which is understandable.

i cannot get over how fast he is recouping or how little he looked cut up. apparently his doctor was THE guy for nano surgery and makes minimal cuts. in fact, have you heard of the new gall bladder surgery where they go through the stomach down the throat via the mouth? yeah, the big time experimental one? he is that guy...that is what he does, he specializes in it...just amazing!

back to the juju bean...she is going to stay home from school tomorrow. she was not feeling well tonight when lee took her apple picking and she was a bit sick, so since they have not had that much time together and he leaves wednesday, i figure rather then have her come home from school tomorrow and have a ton of shool work , making their time together very little, she can stay home and hang out with uncle lee and get her tummy feeling better!

one last little thingy...

blogger has marked me as spam...i have no idea why, i am not a spammer, i really do not want to go through this as i just wanted to post today and not worry about things like this, but come on blogger/google monsters...make your software work more better for us interweberz please?

crafting is my middle name

i love to craft....craft anything

i am no expert, rather i am a beginner who loves to make all different things, but nothing is complicated.

i knit, but only the basic stitches, i bead, but simple stuff, and so on and so forth

i would love to learn more complicated things, but have no one to teach me and written directions are so impossible for me to follow. i don't know if it is the dyslexia that makes it so, but unless i can watch someone do it or have them explain it to me as i do it, then i cannot learn it no matter how hard i try.

i am currently working on an apron i am embroidering for a friend. i am using some of the patterns from sublime stitching (which i sell at my etsy/website http://www.creativemuffin.com) on a basic black three pocket apron. Niki from Bar 46 (http://www.bar46nj.com) asked me to make her one for the days she wants to wear dresses or skirts and still have her bottle opener on her.

i have roller skates and a unicorn, i will be free handing a rainbow above the unicorn and metallic stars around the roller skates. the middle pocket will have the bar 46 logo on it and i just hope she likes it.

so while i am not the most experienced crafter, or skilled, i do make all different things and sell them on my site. i love making the mr. t chocolcate lollipops and stitch markers are fun!

ok, so as a crafter whore, i love going to the bust craftacular every year...the most amazing items and dj's and open bar and....well just too much to try and list, you just have to go and experience it (http://www.bust.com/Craftacular/BUST-Holiday-Craftacular-2008.html)
so, anyway, i decided to try and apply for it. i paid my ten dollars and if, huge IF, i make it in, it is 240 additional for a 8' x 30" table and two chairs to vend...

i do not expect to get in at all, but still it is a nice idea and if i did, i would probably pass out. i submitted stitch markers and mr t chocolate lollies as samples of only some of the stuff i sell, so we shall see....

on to other things now........

today is my mother's birthday. she is currently at the hospital as my father needs a pacemaker and a defribulator and my dad was refusing it earlier (he has been exhasuted from not sleeping and half out of his mind because he slips in and out all day long, about 1 min awake, 1 min sleeping). she and my brother will be there today, everyone else will stay away in an effort to let him get as much rest as possible. the procude he is in now is about 2 hours and i am just about at my wits frayed ends....

i am trying to keep very busyto keep my mind off of it, but it is hard, so i am going to go and rescrub the sink or something....

update for dad and stuff

the surgery went well...they ended up having to do a double bypass and replace the two valves.
they have him on a temp pacemaker, but when they try to take him off of it, his heart rate drops to 30-36 bpm

it was a little scary, but he was actually standing and marching in place the day after the surgery. he had some bleeding, they ended up giving him 2 transfusions. initially during the procedure, he did not need any and that really pleased the doctor, but then he kept leaking, so they had to give him two, kept him in icu for two days, now he is in cardiac care unit.

he goes in tomorrow for the icd and pacemaker...it is a very routine procedure, but with everything going on, i am really still on edge.

i am going to kept this short and not go into the debate that is on and all that hoopla, i will let this evening go for now and watch silly movies....