Crafty Matthew

Life is a DRAG

2011-11-29T14:09:00.000-05:00

I have reactivated my long dead drag career. I performed last week at Bella Notte, and plan to perform there again Sunday. I'm making all kinds of new friends in the drag community, both queens and supporters. I go to the shows at Club 313, Bella Notte, and The Breezeway Pub whenever I can. I went to Machine for the first time last night, and loved it.

This and That

2011-10-28T16:53:00.000-04:00

I'm not much of a Blogger. I'm on Facebook all the time. I've changed the settings here again and everybody can now access this blog.

I've been sick for 15 days now, and it sucks. I'm a lot better, but not well. I plan to go out to 4 different clubs over the next 3 nights, and I'm working the next 3 days, after having 4 days off. I was scheduled off on 3 of them, but had to take Tuesday off as I was much too sick.

I have to look for costumes! I have to decorate and clean. Blech!

What I Have Just Done

2011-09-20T01:31:00.000-04:00

I've changed some settings here. I've made it so only those I allow can see this blog. I've made it adult so I don't have to worry about what I post. All comments are moderated, and I delete the ones from Trolls like "Fire."

I was only disabled from FB for 1 1/2 days, but was away when I was reinstated, so I was off FB about 2 1/2 days back around Memorial Day. Today made exactly one year since I opened my latest FB account. I'm still on Twitter, My Space, Ravelry, Yuku and Shutterfly, but not so much. I'm mostly on FB and YouTube.

My PT Job at Macy's has kept me pretty busy since June 6 when I started. I need to work on my Avon and Etsy websites, and I also have plans to get back into drag soon.

Please follow me on Twitter!

2011-05-30T21:59:00.000-04:00

HELP! Please direct my Facebook friends here, and to my Hotmail email.

http://twitter.com/#!/CraftyMatthew

Facebook Disabled Me

2011-05-30T01:23:00.000-04:00

I am pissed. Facebook disabled my account. I have over 1000 friends there, reached high levels in my games, and promote my websites there.

Will You Please Try To Help Me Out?

2010-11-04T14:50:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

When Chris left in February I had no idea the financial situation would get so bad. I opened an Avon website (link is below) and have several customers, but not anywhere near enough, especially because I need customers who will order regularly. Due to 7 months of very low sales I now have a balance due of over $120 on the account, including a $25 fee because Avon screwed up my last payment, and they refuse to refund it. Although that is a problem, and Avon is severely lacking in telephone customer service, I am always available for questions, and Avon has hundreds of wonderful products, and always many on special.

My Etsy site is going very slowly too, sadly. I listed 14 items, yet in almost 9 months I've only sold 4, and I've dropped the prices drastically too. Won't you please look at them and consider them as holiday gifts?

Chris said he would continue me on his cell phone plan, but he did not. He said he'd continue paying for my Tivo service, but her did not. He took the car which was purchased in both of our names and said he'd make the payments, but the finance company obtained my home phone number, and has been harassing me because Chris is not making those payments, so that is hurting my credit too. I do not think this was his intention, but I am now facing probable eviction from the apartment I've lived in for over 6 1/2 years, and actually over 23 years in this building.

I've been trying to get help from every place I could think of. Legal assistance, Legal Aid and Referral Center, Lawyer Referral, Pro Bono Assistance and City Welfare have all denied assistance. I am waiting to hear from The Way Home, where I had an appointment Tuesday. I have an appointment with Health and Human Services Monday for food stamps and other assistance, and on December 20 for fuel assistance. I may be on the street by then. Even if I file for Section 8, there is still a years long waiting list, and the fact that they feel they over paid me many years ago and I didn't repay all they wanted back may still be on record.

My electric bill is way past due. I got a pay day loan a few months ago to pay Comcast so my phone, internet and cable would not get shut off, but now I'm late on the current bill. I got another pay day loan so I could buy groceries and to help pay for computer repairs. These loans, although only $250 each, charge $75 a month in fees. The laptop computer died on September 4th, and I had to pay $185 to have a new hard drive installed. It died again just under 75 days later, and I had to pay another $75 to get it cleaned up and have Windows reinstalled and to have the power cord replaced. Needless to say, the first time I lost years of stuff stored on the hard drive. Luckily the second time I had not stored as much. I was told to try buying an external DVD drive as the internal one doesn't work and can not be repaired, and to run the recovery disks. Well, that didn't work, so I have a $50 DVD drive that I may wind up returning.

My landlady is way behind in her condo fees, and not allowed to collect rent, so all rent checks need to be made out to the condo association and mailed to their lawyers. She is still considered the owner though, and has filed eviction papers with the court. I had until November 2 to file the appearance form at the court for a hearing, and I did so on November 1. Since June I've only paid $500 a month in rent instead of $725, as that's what the condo association's lawyer agreed to, but now the landlady is asking for the remaining $225 for each of those months, and I still have not paid anything in rent for October or November.

I am not looking for a lavish lifestyle, just enough money to pay for rent, electric, home phone, internet, cable, renter's and life insurance, and basic needs that food stamps won't cover. I can live w/o a car, but do need money to take the bus. I can live with the clothes I have, and have tons of unwatched tapes and DVDs, and unlistened to CDs, and unread books, so I don't need anything like that. I have already lived all these months w/o going to any movies or beaches or anything, and only went to one fair, and rarely to restaurants. I've only gone out to one of the local clubs a few times, and I only drink 2-3 sodas when I go, so it only costs me a few bucks.

There are lots of things I can sell in this apartment. I already have items listed on Etsy, and besides ordering from my Avon website, I have lots of Avon products in stock that I can sell. My handmade items all go on Etsy, and other things will be going up on eBay. PLEASE help promote my websites by sending out the links to all your friends and family by email, and posting them on your Facebook, My Space, Twitter and other social networking pages. If you are able to, I would greatly appreciate you buying items from me regularly to help Fantasia the cat and I to keep our home. Although my Avon website is limited to customers in the USA, if you live outside the USA and are willing to pay the high fees for shipping, I will consider selling outside of the USA on Etsy and eBay.

Also, I never really went out until 5 months after Chris left. I think of Chris every day and miss him terribly. I wish he would consider the possibility of getting back together, and while I don't expect that to happen after 9 months apart, it will still be difficult for me to start a new relationship, but I am willing to try. If you know anyone you can "fix me up" with, I would appreciate it. 9 months alone has been terrible on me emotionally, and financially. It has been very rough physically as well, as the A/C never worked this year, and the landlady refuses to repair it. That means with all the heat from May to October I was sick most of the time, and still have rashes on my chest and back from all the heat. With all the illness the apartment is a mess, and I was unable to get things organized and do any work to list items for sale. I am also not used to doing all the housework and shopping on my own.

You may be interested to know that for nearly 9 months, other than an occasional restaurant or fast food meal, I have lived mostly on food from Walgreens. I went to the bakery outlet once, but then they closed down. I sometimes go to Tedeschi or 7/11. Until this past Saturday when I went to buy fresh veggies and other stuff to cook with the turkey Chris's mom gave us last winter that was still in the freezer, I had not shopped in a grocery store since January.

Stitching Away & Watching All Day,

Crafty Matthew Provencher
http://www.youravon.com/mprovencher
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftyMatthew
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=crafty-matthew
http://twitter.com/CraftyMatthew

http://www.facebook.com/matthewprovencher2010

Please Promote My Websites and Buy From Me!

2010-11-04T11:17:00.001-04:00

Hello all, PLEASE share these links on your Blog pages and any websites you have. I really need to increase my income or I will be homeless. This is NOT a joke, but the truth.

http://www.youravon.com/mprovencher and http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftyMatthew

My Current Situation

2010-10-10T16:13:00.000-04:00

Those who have no experience with anyone who has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder, do not understand. I have no family or friends to move in with, do not have the money to pay what's being asked to stop the eviction, and surely can not afford to move. I did OK when Chris first left and I opened my Avon website, and I expected that to continue, but it has not. I had also been commissioned to crochet and knit a couple of items, but then the third commission fell through. I've had interest expressed in some of my items on Etsy, but out of 14 listed, only 2 have sold, and I've drastically reduced the prices on the 12 remaining.

My income over the past 6 months has been pretty much just my SSD checks. I am behind in rent and electric, my Comcast bill is due, and the Pay day loan I got is all gone and the monthly fees have eaten it all away, and I have not been able to pay anything towards the $250 that I borrowed. Even when I was with Chris, I still couldn't afford to go to the dentist, and haven't been since the 90's. I also have not been to the eye doctor in many years, and really need new glasses, but can't afford them. Things that most people take for granted are things I don't have. My stereo doesn't really work, my VCR/DVD player doesn't work, the CD/DVD drive on my laptop doesn't work, and the laptop is 8 years old with Windows XP. The desktop computer is 11 years old with Windows 98. I no longer have a working cell phone as Chris stopped paying the bill and I couldn't afford it.

My laptop died a month ago and I had to have a new hard drive put in, with money I couldn't really afford to spend, but I needed a working computer. That means I am still in the process of retrieving things I lost that were on that hard drive, and some I will never find and be able to restore, including thousands of pictures I had saved over the years from MSN groups.

I also have no car. Chris took the one we bought together, and he has been regularly late with payments, and I get harassing phone calls from Capital One about it. It is showing on my credit report, which was supposed to finally be clean by next year, but may not be now. I also have no driver's license, as mine expired nearly a year ago, and I was not able to afford to renew it, so I just got a non-driver's ID so I could open a new bank account. I will have to take the driving test to ever get a license again.

Can you imagine not ever going to the grocery store? I have not shopped in a grocery store since January! I survive on food from Walgreens, 7/11 and Tedeschi, and occasionally from cheap takeout like Burger King, Subway and Dunkin Donuts mostly. I went to the bakery outlet once, but then they closed. My mom helps a little, but doesn't have that much extra food to share.

This is all incredibly hard to deal with, along with the emotional strain of losing a life partner of nearly 13 years whom I expected to be with for the rest of my life. Depression makes it very difficult for me to get motivated to take pictures and measurements of the items I need to sell, write descriptions, weigh the items to quote accurate shipping, list them on Etsy and/or eBay, and promote them on FB, Twitter and My Space. My condo is also a mess as I don't get the motivation or energy to clean, and I've been sick more days than I've been well since mid May as my A/C does not work and the landlady refuses to fix it. I also no longer have Chris here to help with things like dishes, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, and shopping.

It is hard not to dwell on these things when I've had financial difficulties for the majority of the past 25 years, but this is the first time I've ever faced a possible eviction. Thankfully I have a higher power, God, whom I pray to daily, and one day at a time am coming close to 18 years sober on 10/24, 3 days after my birthday. If my finances do not change very quickly, not long after that I may be on the street. I would not be able to keep my cat Fantasia either, and that would be very devastating.

Double Rainbow All The Way

2010-07-25T22:57:00.002-04:00

The afghan is finally done!

I'm Starting To Delete Sites

2010-07-17T14:51:00.002-04:00

I am starting to cancel my memberships in social networking sites I have tried but did not like. The first to go is Bebo. Only 2 friends had added me, and only 3 other people had viewed my profile. I found the site difficult to use, and it did not have the social networking aspects of Twitter, My Space and Facebook.

I have 16 connections on LinkedIn so I am keeping that membership. I don't have many friends on My Space yet, but I do have over 30 pending friend requests sent out, so hopefully more people will remember they have accounts there, and start using it again. I am sticking with Ravelry too, but still have not become too active there yet. Although I have spent a lot of time setting things up on Shutterfly, the few members I have at one of my share sites are not posting at all, and the other share site has never gotten any members. I will eventually be deleting everything there. I also have Photobucket and Flickr for sharing pictures, and those both seem to be more popular.

Yuku still is problematic for me. I am going to gradually move my content from there to Yahoo Groups. I have already created a new Yahoo group called Knit, Crochet and Cook Today. I am sticking with Yahoo and Twitter. While I am keeping this blog, I am not sure about Google groups. I've only joined one, and have no plans to create any groups there. Yahoo groups have more features and look better.

Evaluating Social Networking Sites

2010-07-13T20:17:00.002-04:00

I will not be retaining a membership at ALL the websites listed in the previous post. I am finding that some are really lousy. If anyone belongs to any besides Facebook that are not in the list, please invite me to join them.

Where To Find Me and Contact Me Online!

2010-07-10T21:24:00.002-04:00

Facebook is not allowing me to be on there, so please check me out on these other sites:

http://twitter.com/CraftyMatthew Please follow me!

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MyProfile=Y Please become my friend!

http://craftymatthew.blogspot.com/ Please follow me!

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=crafty-matthew Please bid on my auctions!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftyMatthew Please register and buy something from my page!

http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=80350781&trk=tab_pro Please become my contact!

http://www.myspace.com/craftymatthew Please become my friend!

http://www.ravelry.com/people/CraftyMatthew Please become my friend and join my groups!

http://knittingrockscrochetrules.shutterfly.com/ Please apply for membership!

http://www.youravon.com/mprovencher Please register as my customer and place an order!

http://craftymatthew.u.yuku.com/ Please become my friend and join my groups!

http://cid-a76acbba96f562ea.profile.live.com/ Please join my network and invite me to yours!

http://www.yahoo.com/ I belong to 13 groups here. If you have a Yahoo! group, please invite me!

All Facebook Friends seeing this, please ask my FB friends that you know to visit this blog and all these sites, and to email me at my Hotmail address, Gmail Address, or Yahoo Address.

Time To Start Fresh

2010-05-14T18:46:00.002-04:00

It took me 5 extra days to get here and clean up this blog like I said I would. I've deleted posts, saving important stuff to my hard drive, and edited other stuff that was no longer relevant or necessary.

My interests are TV, Knitting, Crochet, Facebook, Music, Movies, Cooking, Gay interests and more. I would love to meet a nice man who shares some of these with me, supports my interest in the others, and allows me to be who I am.

This week I crocheted a dishcloth and am now knitting a cap. I crocheted my mother a short sleeved lace sweater for Mother's Day.

I am seeking new Avon and Etsy customers. I also need more helpers for my Hatchlings group on Facebook. I had to start my Facebook account completely from scratch again 31 days ago. I am still rebuilding, especially my friend list, Pieces of Flair, Texas Holdem chips, My Zoo and Hatchlings Milestones.

My Etsy and Avon Shops (eBay and Facebook too!)

2010-02-24T13:58:00.002-05:00

Since my partner of almost 13 years decided to leave me w/o warning nearly 3 weeks ago, I need to supplement my SSD checks, so I have opened an Etsy shop and have become an ERepresentative for Avon, allowing me to sell nationwide. Please register at both websites and check often. I will also re-establish myself as an eBay seller soon too. I am also very active on Facebook.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftyMatthew
http://www.youravon.com/mprovencher
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=crafty-matthew
http://www.facebook.com/dexhunter2

Busy Busy Busy

2010-01-08T15:14:00.004-05:00

I've been on the same knitting project for 2 weeks, and haven't crocheted a thing in that time. I was commissioned to knit a scarf, and I think I may actually finish it tonight, finally. This is the pattern: http://www.helloyarn.com/irishhikingscarfpf.htm I am using Lion Brand Woolease in Rose Heather.

My time online is mostly on Facebook. I am extremely active in the Hatchlings game. I also play My Zoo regularly and Texas Holdem Poker sometimes, and was playing O Christmas Tree, which I will play again in November and December, probably. I also use a few collecting and gifting applications, like Pieces of Flair and A Cat ForYou.

My groups are still on Yuku, after migrating from MSN, but they are inactive. I want to move most of the content to my FB groups, and my Shutterfly share site, but I have not had time to do much of that yet. I still have memberships in a number of Yahoo groups, but I do not actively participate.

On any given day my primary email account has hundreds of unread messages. Most are solicited advertizing, My Points and comic strips. I get very little in the way of personal correspondence there, so have little incentive to visit daily and start clearing it out.

We Are Broke and I'm Very Sad

2009-12-16T02:49:00.003-05:00

I am very sad. We literally have no money even for food, and there is not much in the condo. I also discovered that December's rent has not been paid, and we were late with November's rent and had to pay a late fee. We have no money for Christmas presents, and Chris still has not been notified if he will receive unemployment compensation for the 3 weeks he was w/o work.

I am crocheting and knitting as much as I can, but there is only so much time, and I still have lots of cleaning and decorating to do. Luckilly we have plenty of decorations. I feel really bad about not being able to buy nice gifts for our mothers or each other.

For those who do not know, I've been on Social Security Disability since the '90s, and Chris now works as a cashier at Wal-mart for less than 40 hours a week, at $9.00/hour. We have had severe financial difficulties for 13 1/2 months since he was first demoted from management at his previous job, where he was basically forced to quit from last month for his own mental health. He was being treated very unfairly.

Please say prayers for us. I have stuff to try to sell on eBay and Etsy, but it's too late to get them listed and sold, collect the payments, and get them shipped for Christmas, so I probably won't be able to get into that until 2010.

I'm Back

2009-10-08T15:00:00.002-04:00

This is the first time in over 2 weeks that I've been able to access this blog and have it appear properly. It turns out there was malware on the computer, and if affected Google, Blogger, and all of my anti-spyware, anti-malware and anti-virus programs. Finally I was able to get it removed with the recommendation of Combo-Fix.

I am knitting caps, hopefully to sell on Etsy.

I am on Facebook all the time. My name on Facebook is Matthew Mark Anthony Provencher.

The new TV season is proving very difficult to watch everything we want to.

Chris and I did get to go to the Deerfield Fair, and enjoyed it as always, but it appears that we won't be making it to Topsfield this year.

My mother had a stroke as has been in the nursing home for a while. She was scheduled to go home today.

Chris was sick, mostly brought on by the actions of his boss, and we were unable to go to William and Leigh's wedding, which was very disapointing. We did not get the chance to celebrate our 11th anniversary on September 12 either.

Today Is Chris' Birthday!

2009-06-28T04:20:00.001-04:00

Sick

2009-06-19T14:28:00.001-04:00

I have been very sick for over a week. I wasn't too bad Saturday, so we were able to do what we had planned for the day, but I got much worse as I was w/o medicine for 2 days after that.

Latest Knitting

2009-06-10T01:34:00.002-04:00

I am knitting classic socks from very old pattern books. I knit a pair for myself in a 4 color fair isle pattern. They are partially done on 2 needles, so I have some seams and lots of yarn ends to weave in. Then I moved on to a pair of cable socks for Chris.

Too Much Advertising Email!

2009-05-28T16:42:00.003-04:00

In this economy we just don't have the money to buy all kinds of stuff. Yesterday when I logged into my Hotmail account, it was the first time I had a chance to go through it in 2 weeks. I had well over 200 new messages in my in box! Numerous email from Avon, Annie's Attic, Maggie's Crochet, a local gay club, Oprah Winfrey, Wal-Mart, etc. NO messages from friends and family in those 2 weeks. It took me many hours to go through all that stuff, and I discontinued many of the email memberships. I do not need multiple emails weekly from a website trying to get me to buy something, or telling me what's on their TV show every day! Once a week or once a month is sufficient, and those that email me more than that I am canceling the subscriptions. I don't have time to visit all my favorite websites and do other things I want to do, like knit and crochet, or need to do, like housework and laundry. I would much rather receive nice, friendly email from friends and family than all this advertising. Although it is from websites I approved to email me, when they send 3-10 email a week, it becomes Spam!

We Saw Josh Blue!

2009-05-19T01:58:00.001-04:00

If you've watched Last Comic Standing maybe you will remember the comedian with CP that won a few years ago. His name is Josh Blue, and Chris won tickets to see him at the Comedy Connection in Boston. It was a last minute thing, and Chris was able to leave work a little early, but we still didn't get to the theater until after show time. Luckilly it started late! The show was great, but the drivers in Boston were psychotic. I commented about it on my Facebook page.

Couch Potato

2009-05-15T00:10:00.002-04:00

From Easter to Mother's Day I never went out of our condo building. On both days we went to Chris's mother's house, and had nice visits with the family.

What do I do? I watch tons of TV. I knit and crochet up a storm. I visit sites like Facebook and Ravelry. I suppose I should do lots of housework, but instead I play Hatchlings, LOL.

American Idol Today, and Reason for lack of posts

2009-05-12T23:16:00.002-04:00

Danny and Adam were both fantastic. Kris, not so much. Kara was very childish. I didn't miss Allison at all. We got to watch the performance show live for the first time in many weeks, and I voted the full 2 hours for Danny. The lines were extremely busy, and I was only able to get through 16 times.

Like any other blogger, I really on comments to let me know people are visiting and reading what I write. I've spent a long time on some lengthy posts lately, and while the counter indicates a decent number of visits, I still have only 2 followers and very few comments. Until the number of followers and comments increase, I do not have any incentive to post daily. Instead I am spending hours daily playing Hatchlings on Facebook, and knitting or crocheting.

I Feel Like I'm Being Pulled In All Directions

2009-05-06T01:14:00.004-04:00

I try to come here every day, and post, but sometimes get too busy, or feel I don't have much to say. It's also a bit frustrating that only 2 people are following me. I am going to open up commenting to registered users again, but they will still remain moderated, and if I receive any that are just too upsetting, I will change it back to blog members only again.

I am now in at least 60 groups on Ravelry, although I have not been active in many yet. I was helping co-moderate one, which turned into a really bad situation. The new administrator of the group instructed members how to put members on ignore and did other horrid things. I have been a member of that group since the month it was created, and I am still posting on it, but not so much anymore. My Ravelry groups are Knitting Rocks Crochet Rules and American Idol On Ravelry. You need to be a Ravelry member to access them. I am trying to carefully moderate them and catch the troll posts and edit or delete them. This has become time consuming as the trolls on Ravelry are rabid. Luckilly some of my longtime internet friends are on Ravelry and have my back.

Then I have the 4 groups I migrated from MSN to Yuku (links are on the right.) At this time they are not anything close to being active, and I think I am going to have to eventually save all the content, or the best stuff anyway, and repost it elsewhere. This will be extremely time consuming. I have the two groups I have created on Shutterfly, one for entertainment news, and the other for crocheting and knitting (links are on the right.) I am trying to build them up with content, but it is also difficult and time consuming, and I don't have a lot of incentive as hardly anyone has joined the crochet and knitting group yet, and no one has joined the entertainment group.

Then we come to World Groups. Does anyone even use that website anymore? I have started moving my group that is on there, which I moved there from Yahoo, now over to Facebook. I am on Facebook a lot every day. I love it, seeing everyone's messages and pictures. I've joined some groups and posted a little on them. I like some of the games, and am obsessed with Hatchlings.

There are also all those Yahoo groups I still belong to, and a few on Multiply, and 1 on Google. I gave up on Aimoo and all other group services, although I'm a member of forums like American Idol, Crochetville, etc., but rarely post on any of these sites.

Being obsessed with American Idol I visit many AI websites at least once or more every week, especially late Tuesday night and all day Wednesday up to the results show. With all this regular internet activity, do you wonder why I hardly send emails or have time to instant message?

A TV addict's work is never done either. I Tivo, DVD record and/or tape everything. I watch tons of shows as they air, or on late night and middle of the night replays, online, and on demand. I am forever saving stuff on the Tivos for longer because we can't watch everything right away, and are now about 5 weeks behind on many shows. I often have to transfer some of the shows to tape, and even have a few left that I transfered to the computer.

The condo is a wreck because of all this. I have tons of cleaning, organizing, throwing away, and getting things ready to sell on eBay to do. The Easter decorations are still out, and the Christmas afghans are still out too. Then today I had an extra added chore when I accidentally bumped into one of the media towers, and the CD rack on the top fell down, on my back, and there were CDs all over the place. Luckilly I was not hurt, but some of the CD boxes were, and it took a long time to put them all back in order and into the rack.

Crocheted Socks

2009-05-03T17:54:00.002-04:00

After I finished the socks I was knitting, I went back to the pair I was crocheting. I started the second one and it's already half done. I think this is my favorite crochet sock pattern so far. It's Fiery Socks from Crochet World December 2008.

Ravelry is Losing it's Luster, but I finished the socks!

2009-05-03T00:00:00.004-04:00

Well, at least one group anyway, that is being administrated by a tyrannical dictator, and customer service that can take over 5 days to reply to help requests. I still enjoy the website though, and now have 2 groups there: Knitting Rocks Crochet Rules, and American Idol on Ravelry.

I finally finished knitting the second sock. I still have to weave the toe, and weave in the 2 yarn ends, but that's it.

Danny is in the top 2! Yeah!

2009-04-30T00:43:00.004-04:00

I was so happy to see Danny Gokey in the top 2 of American Idol tonight. He is the only one to never be in the bottom 2 or 3, which means he is a good bet to be the winner.

Oh, I am also done the gussets on my sock. After that the rest is all plain knitting so it goes pretty fast. I got the new Crochet World magazine in the mail, and there are many things I want to make in it. I am anxious to crochet again. I've been so busy on the internet, and only knitting a few rounds each day, and haven't gotten to crochet in a little while.

Things On My Mind

2009-04-28T00:18:00.004-04:00

Our bank is instituting $15.oo monthly fees if your daily balance drops below $100.oo. In this economy we never have an extra $100 to keep in our account. What to do? They have other kinds of accounts available, and we may have to change.

I have become the co-moderator of the American Idol group on Ravelry, and it's certainly more active than the AI groups I've managed on MSN and elsewhere. It is taking a lot of my time, but I am enjoying it.

Knitting Rocks Crochet Rules is my group which is now available on 3 sites. The old MSN boards are now on Yuku, a site that will store all the pictures, patterns, recipes and links is set up on Shutterfly, and a version for meeting new people and having conversations is on Ravelry.

I'm on Facebook a lot every day, and I hope more and more people will join me there. I'm really having fun exchanging messages, posting pictures and videos, and playing games, especially Hatchlings.

It Sure is Warm for April

2009-04-27T03:17:00.001-04:00

For the past 2 days it's hit 80 degrees, and we have the windows open. I can't believe I'm in a t-shirt and shorts in April.

What's Up With Ravelry?

2009-04-25T14:04:00.002-04:00

I'm getting the message that it is unavailable. I can't even log in! I moderate 2 groups there, including one that I am the adminstrator of, and I need to check for new activity.

Edit- It came back online minutes after I posted this.

Susan Boyle Got a Makeover?

2009-04-24T12:07:00.001-04:00

Whomever did this makeover should be shot! She looks worse!

http://tv.msn.com/wonderwall/infocus/susan-boyle/?iv=0

Laundry Sucks

2009-04-24T11:30:00.001-04:00

Why can't everything be cheap enough to just throw it away and buy new? Of course that would not be very green though. Is there a way to make laundry fun?

THE BEST CAT VIDEO YOU'LL EVER SEE

2009-04-23T13:19:00.001-04:00

Trying to Add my Blog to iGoogle

2009-04-23T12:34:00.002-04:00

I use 3 "home" pages, Windows Live, Facebook, and iGoogle. I am trying to figure out how to add instant access to my blog on my iGoogle page. Since this is a Google service, it seems to be I should be able to access it w/o having to open a new window or tab, but directly from somewhere on the iGoogle page after I log in.

BTW, do any of you use Google Groups? So far I am not impressed. I love Google search engine, and Blogger, but Groups seem to be pretty bare bones compared to other services out there.

Lil and Anoop are gone

2009-04-22T23:47:00.002-04:00

Did anyone notice that this week's top 4 on American Idol was all white boys, and the bottom 3 were all people of color? Coincidence? Surely Matt deserved to go before Lil. She was not given proper credit this week, and has been overly criticized for many weeks now, when IMHO she only had one bad performance.

Download These Sock Patterns Free

2009-04-21T12:52:00.002-04:00

Just click on the title and you'll go directly to a pdf file that you may save to your computer. It has dozens of wonderful sock patterns, including the ones I am knitting now, Purple Mountain Majesty. It is called The Sole Solution. It is several years old, so you may already have it, but if you don't, I highly recommend it. It has patterns for all weights of yarn, many different sizes, and all kinds of styles.

What Did You Do Today?

2009-04-21T01:47:00.003-04:00

What did you do today?

I watched lots of programs on Tivo, then Dancing with the Stars, Rules of Engagement and Medium in prime time.

I read some emails and checked out some websites.

I spent a lot of time playing Hatchlings on Facebook.

I accepted a new member to one of my Yuku groups, and accepted one to Shutterfly yesterday.

Lots of people have joined my new Ravelry group.

I still resisted going to Twitter and My Space.

I knit a few rounds on my sock.

(BTW our laptop case has broken, and I don't know how to fix it, but it's still working, so that's the important part.)

Poll Results and Sitemeter Removal

2009-04-19T16:54:00.003-04:00

The poll results reveal that the number 1 and number 2 choices for me to post my pictures on are Facebook and Shutterfly, so that's where I will be uploading them. There were not enough votes for Flickr or Photobucket, neither of which I like all that much, and no one voted for Multiply or World Groups, so I won't be adding more pics there.

I am removing Sitemeter from my blog. Their reports have been messed up for 2 weeks or more. I will look for another visitor counter.

(I've replaced it with Stat Counter.)

Today is the last day of the poll!

2009-04-17T14:25:00.001-04:00

Which website(s) should I upload my pictures to?

Please vote in this poll over on the right. Visitors are allowed to vote, you may vote multiple times, and you may vote for more than one site with each vote.

Don't Knit When You're Half Asleep

2009-04-17T14:19:00.002-04:00

I had such trouble knitting one round on my sock last night. Every round is plain knitting, except for every 4th round, which is a simple pattern stitch, but I screwed up on each of the 4 needles while knitting around, and had to start over each needle. Once I finished that round, I put it away! Funny how I didn't have such problems knitting the first sock, or doing the 3 previous pattern rows on the second one.

Emails and Facebook

2009-04-16T23:36:00.004-04:00

Today I got caught up replying to some older emails. I am trying to make sure everyone in my contacts lists are all people actually contacting me, and who want to receive messages from me, by email or IM. I'm trying to get more of my friends and family and in-laws to join Facebook too. Contrary to what some may want to believe, I do have friends, and my friends lists on Facebook, Ravelry and Yuku are all growing.

Only Blog Members May Post Comments

2009-04-15T23:55:00.002-04:00

I may block people from emails and IMs. I may ban them from my groups, or deny their applications. I can deny friend requests, or delete friends who prove to be enemies. I can reject their comments to this blog, but that does not mean the moderated comments don't show up in my email. I thought that limiting posting to only those registered on Google would prevent the nasty messages, but it has not. Of course I am not going to approve them, but I don't even want to see them. From now on if you want to post comments to this blog, you will need to become a member of the blog, so please join now!

The Judges Used Their Save On AI

2009-04-15T23:47:00.002-04:00

Are they nuts? Matt has had some excellent performances, but it was his time to leave American Idol. He performed badly last night and tonight, has ranked as low as 9th 3 weeks ago, and 7th tonight, and was a wild card, not even top 3 from his group. He has no shot at winning, and now if Adam, Danny or Kris slip to 6th place next week, they can not be saved! So if one of those 3, or Allison, Lil or Anoop is your favorite, make sure to vote for your number one favorite for the full 2 hours next week. Please do not throw any votes Matt's way unless he is your number 1 favorite. I think we need to show the judge's that their wild card picks and "save" are NOT what America wants.

Positivity Please

2009-04-14T13:50:00.003-04:00

I've been writing my blog for 1 1/2 years. I try to be informative, interesting, and I hope, at least somewhat entertaining. While I do not live my life looking through rose-colored glasses, I do want to look at the positive aspects of things, and not dwell on the negative. I do not feel that spending time on negative filled websites and then posting about it is productive. If I am unhappy with the content of a website, or the members or managers of a group, I will discontinue visiting the website, giving me more time to spend visting sites I enjoy, with members and managers that I like, and who like me.

There is nothing good to come from bashing people we disagree with on public forums. Life is too short for being petty. If I do not get along with someone, and we both belong to a group, I will ignore their posts rather than replying, and I will not bring the disagreements to other groups or sites, including my blog. If I do not like a website, I will not go to it anymore, nor will I waste time warning people about it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but if I post a warning about a bad site or group, it still gives it free advertizing. I will now only post links to sites I enjoy and recommend, because I do not want to unintentionally promote negative websites.

I gladly and willingly approve positive comments posted to this blog. All comments must be made by Google Members posting with their Google ID. No negative comments or hateful comments will be approved, particularly if they are from people whom I have had to block from emails, IMs, PMs and any other types of posting on my websites, groups and profiles. If you want to argue, please create your own blog, group or website, and do whatever you want there, and please do not visit my blog, websites, groups or profiles, or attempt to post on them. My online pages are for my friends, family, and acquaintances who like me.

Dishcloths Done, Socks and more socks

2009-04-13T23:50:00.002-04:00

I have finished making every dishcloth and hand towel from the Kitchen Kolors booklet. I have lots more to make from the dishcloth groups I belong to, but not now. I am still knitting the socks I had in progress, and have now started crocheting a pair too, Fiery Socks from Crochet World December 2008. I am using Regia sock yarn from my stash.

Easter and Socks

2009-04-12T23:56:00.001-04:00

I knitted several rounds on the afore mentioned socks while riding back and forth from Chris's mom's house. We had a very nice easter dinner, and lots of the family was there.

Please Vote In The Poll

2009-04-11T23:34:00.002-04:00

I need more votes to help me decide which website(s) to upload all of my pictures and graphics to. The poll is at the top of the column on the right.

Cleaning Up Contacts Lists

2009-04-10T22:41:00.003-04:00

I have spent most of the day clearing out my Hotmail contacts and Windows Live Messenger contacts. So many people stop emailing and never IM, and I never got to know them after meeting them online someplace like MSN Groups, where many people joined groups to have access to the content, with no intention of ever participating or becoming friendly with the members. People can correspond with me here, on Facebook, and on other places, so if I haven't gotten to know them, I don't need them on my contacts list.

American Idol, and Recipes

2009-04-09T23:38:00.004-04:00

Goodbye to Scott on American Idol. Like Megan, he was promising at first, but by the end had gotten really bad.

The Homecooking website is going away. I need to save a bunch of recipes from there. I had tons of them saved as website links, which in a month and a half will not work. The site has been blocked from the Wayback Machine.

Who's Going Home on American Idol?

2009-04-08T14:44:00.002-04:00

Adam appears to be the only one 100% safe this week. After spending 2 of the past 3 weeks in the bottom 3, Allison may be safe too. Danny could spend his first week in the bottom 3, but it does not look like it. Matt could spend his second week in the bottom 3, or Kris could spend his first week there, but that seems unlikely, no matter what Dial Idol says. Anoop could very well be in the bottom 3 for the second week in a row, but he will probably be safe. It is not looking good for Lil. It appears she will be the first of the 4 never to be in the bootom 3 to be there for the first time this week, and probably in the bottom 2. Scott appears to be the most vulnerable of all, with a performance I can only describe as a train wreck, and the worst he's given on the show. Vote for the Worst chose him after Megan was eliminated, but surely their votes should not make him safe. Scott has shown up in the bottom 3 of every website I've checked so far, and he is 8th on 7 out of 9 lists so far. Only the unreliable AOL poll and the bizarre findings from Dial Idol this week have him listed as 7th and 6th respectively.

WIPs and UFOs

2009-04-07T16:53:00.003-04:00

My WIPs currently include a dishcloth and a pair of socks, both knitting, no current crochet WIPs. My UFOs include afghans, sweaters, a pillow, maybe some other things I can't remember. I also have socks to darn, and some FOs to frog. I may have a few other things to do slight repairs on, and one sweater that needs a good sweater "shaving," but I probably won't want to wear it again until at least September anyway as it's Woolease in Autumn colors.

Almost Done With Kitchen Kolors

2009-04-06T15:01:00.002-04:00

I have been knitting and crocheting dishcloths from this booklet since early this year. There are 3 had towel and 23 dishcloths, and I've made 25 and have the 26th one about 1/2 done.

I still have the previously mentioned socks on the needles too, but needed to take a break from them. Believe me though, when you go from knitting on size zeros up to size 9s and 10s, the needles seem huge!

Happy Easter, and it's another Anniversary for me and Chris

2009-04-05T18:40:00.003-04:00

Easter is only one week away, and it's also the 12th anniversary of the day Chris and I met.

Lots of Pictures To Take

2009-04-04T14:48:00.004-04:00

I already have tons of pictures saved of items I've knitted, crocheted and crafted. I have tons of old photos that I need to scan, and many items I've made that I've never photographed, and because they are still in my posession, I need to get around to saving them. I have many options now to share them, and I prefer to use sites where I can create albums with unlimited, or almost unlimited storage. That means that Shutterfly, Facebook and Photobucket are options. World Groups and Multiply are options too, but I have some issues with those services.

Where would you prefer to see my photos posted? I will create a poll.

Websites I Visit (Almost) Every Day

2009-04-03T13:20:00.006-04:00

http://craftymatthew.blogspot.com/

http://www.anniesattic.com/

http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/featured/index.shtml

http://www.dailycrocheter.com/day.php

http://www.dailyknitter.com/day.php

https://www.ravelry.com/account/login

http://www.shutterfly.com/?cid=SHARE3SXXXX (I haven't been visiting and posting here daily, but I hope to do so)

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.intl=us&.src=ygrp&.done=http%3a//groups.yahoo.com%2Fmygroups&rl=1 (I have not been visiting here daily, but I really need to check out the groups I belong to more carefully, and choose which ones I definitely want to remain in, so I should spend some time here each day.)

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=antcomic&view=videos&start=260 (Well, I have good intentions to visit this daily and watch at least a week's worth of videos each day until I catch up, but I still have not had time to do that.)

http://www.yuku.com/

Followers Option Added

2009-04-03T01:52:00.001-04:00

I've added the option for those of you who visit regularly to become followers of my blog. Do you have a blog? If so, I would like to become your follower too.

Settings Changed

2009-04-03T01:13:00.004-04:00

Anonymous users can no longer even attempt to post on this blog. Only registered Google users may post, and all posts are moderated. There are not a lot of comments yet, but the majority of comments have been approved. The approved posts have been by nice people who are not afraid to identify themselves, at least by first name, or regularly used screen name. No negative or hateful comments will be approved.

Kitchen Kolors

2009-03-31T13:46:00.003-04:00

This is the booklet from Lily Sugar 'n Cream yarn that I have been knitting and crocheting so many dishcloths and hand towels from. I am making every one in the booklet, and thoroughly enjoying it. With so many wonderful colors of cotton yarns available you can personalize these anyway you like. Pinks and purples for spring, blues and greens for summer, patriotic colors for July, oranges and yellows for fall, reds and greens for Christmas, etc.

http://www.sugarncream.com/patternbook.php?PBS=570821

My Groups and Websites

2009-03-29T21:50:00.004-04:00

Since 1999 I have been joining online groups, creating my own groups, and meeting all kinds of people online. There are some wonderful people online, and I am happy to be friends with them.

I am interested in TV, crocheting, knitting, other crafts (a little,) movies, music, games, animals, pictures, reading, decorating, cooking, baking, chatting online, county fairs, beaches, zoos, musical theater, music charts, TV ratings, collecting things, comics and possibly other stuff I can't think of right away. I look for these things in websites and groups I visit, and try to include them in groups I create.

I have updated the links on the right of the blog. Those are the ones I visit most, as of now, including all of my own groups and sites. I would love to see my blog readers joining my groups, and becoming followers of this blog too.

Back to the Dishcloths

2009-03-28T17:55:00.001-04:00

I needed a break from knitting the slow going socks, so I started crocheting dishcloths again, and completed one yesterday and am on another one today. These are just basic single crochet striped ones.

American Idol

2009-03-27T15:25:00.002-04:00

Wow, I spent so much time on American Idol websites yesterday. There are 10 sites that I visit once or more weekly to see how the contestants are doing. The day of the results show I'm on those sites all day, and doing calculations of lists and all that. If you try to IM me during American Idol or on results day, I will not be able to reply, sorry. This week I was sure than Michael was leaving, and last week I wasn't as sure, but correctly predicted that Alexis was leaving.

Adam is the frontrunner as of now, and number 2 on my list. My favorite is Danny, and I voted for him over 200 times Wednesday night, and many times on AOL's poll too. Last year my favorite, David Archuleta, finished second. David Cook and Carly Smithson, who finished 1st and 6th were my two other top favorites. In 2007 my favorite, Jordin Sparks won. In 2006 my favorite Taylor Hicks won, but Chris Daughtry was close to my favorite and he was 4th. In 2005 I was really torn between Carrie Underwood and Anthony Fedorov, but Anthony finished 4th, and Carrie has gone on to be my favorite all time idol.

In 2004 my favorites were LaToya London, George Huff and Fantasia Barrino. I love Fantasia's first CD, and since LaToya and George were 4th and 5th, of the final 3 winner Fantasia was my clear favorite. In 2003 winner Ruben was my favorite, and is still my number 2 all time idol. He was fantastic last night. In 2002, runnerup Justin Guarini was my clear favorite, and winner Kelly Clarkson only ranked about 5th on my list, but since then she has recorded so many great songs, that I really love her. But I still think Justin, Tamyra, Nikki, and Christina were all better performing on the show in 2002, and RJ Helton was pretty close to Kelly Clarkson.

American Idol Pushed Back Again

2009-03-24T20:12:00.002-04:00

For the second time this season American Idol gets pushed to Wednesday and Thursday instead of Tuesday and Wednesday to make room for the President's news conference. We have opted to watch Reaper instead.

Chris's schedule also got changed at the last minute as he was getting ready to go in, he was told to take today off and work extra hours the rest of the week, including open to close Friday.

I made peanut blossom cookies today. I hadn't done any baking from scratch in weeks.

I knit a few rounds on the second sock. Did everyone see Martha's yarn show yesterday? It was really good. You can watch it on her website, www.marthastewart.com.

One Sock Done, second one started

2009-03-23T20:25:00.002-04:00

To avoid second sock syndrome I cast on the for the second sock right away and started knitting. I messed up and had to start over, but it is started. Challenge yourself! Try knitting with smaller needles. It's easier than you might think, and if your pattern has pattern stitches, and you're using a multi colored yarn too boot, it will be very interesting.

Knitting Socks

2009-03-23T00:43:00.002-04:00

Several days ago I started knitting a pair of socks called Purple Mountain Majesty. The pattern is in a large PDF file with many sock patterns. I am using Skacel Trampoline yarn that has golden orange, off white, grayish tan, brown and grayish black as the colors in it. They are coming out great. The first one is nearly done and the yarn is creating a very interesting pattern. These are knit on size ZERO needles at a gauge of 17 stitches to 2 inches. Not exactly instant knitting, LOL.

The Never Ending Dishcloths

2009-03-14T01:18:00.002-04:00

Today's pattern of the day at JPF Crochet was yet another dishcloth that I had to make right away, so I crocheted it tonight.

I spent much of the day at Aimoo Groups, Yuku Groups, Facebook and on Windows Live Messenger. I also visited a few other sites, and watched lots of things on Tivo.

It is freezing here today, and even with the heat on and wrapped in an afghan I can't seem to warm up.

What Is Everyone Making?

2009-03-11T17:20:00.002-04:00

Since the beginning of the year I've been on a kick knitting and crocheting dishcloths from a pattern booklet I got on eBay, and I made a hand towel from the booklet too. I also made a hotpad that was a freebie of the day on JPFun Crochet. I am currently knitting a wool beanie called London Beanie for our mailman. I made many caps, mittens, wrist warmers and scarves for Christmas. I also crocheted a huge round ripple afghan, my biggest one yet.

To post a reply, please identify yourself, and I will approve most replies.

All Anonymous Replies Are Rejected

2008-11-11T18:43:00.001-05:00

This has always been the case here. I DO NOT allow anonymous comments. If you want to reply to any of my posts, please identify yourself in the space provided. There are many unmoderated blogs where you can post your anonymous messages.

MSN Groups Is Closing!

2008-10-25T23:43:00.008-04:00

This news was leaked on 10/15. MSN will shut down groups in February 2009. Migrations to Multiply.com began on 10/23. I am researching numerous other sites for recreating my groups.

Edit- To answer Tammy's question, the best explanation I've found is here, and NO, Multiply is not MSN/Microsoft's company AT ALL!

http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/

To "Anonymous"- I do not accept anonymous comments. If you want to comment, identify yourself please. I never post on other blogs w/o giving my name.

Today Was an eBay Day

2008-09-21T01:08:00.003-04:00

They have changed the My eBay page, so I spent a while customizing mine. Recently they changed the number of items you could watch up to 200. Mine was at 155, but I hadn't gone through it in a while. 122 of them had ended! I had to go through them all to find the ones that had been relisted, and watch them again, and delete all the others. Then I finally posted feedback for 2 auctions that were delivered a while ago, but both were very slow to be delivered, and I was in no hurry to post feedback for them, especially one that I had to post neutral for to be truly honest. This took all afternoon.

A Day In The Life

2008-09-19T15:18:00.003-04:00

Today I did some crocheting on my latest project, a Gentle Waves Round Ripple afghan. The pattern is here: Gentle Waves Round Ripple

I finished my short sleeves sweater shirt recently, but am not at all satisfied with the fit or look, so it will require a good deal of frogging and reworking.

I've got the September KAL from a Yahoo group I belong to saved in email, and I still haven't even done the August one yet. I still haven't even started one of the May KALs from one of my own groups. I also have not finished the socks I was knitting for Chris yet.

With Chris having 2 days in a row off this week, and us going to the beach on one of them, I have a ton of shows to catch up with on the Tivos. I watch so many talk shows, and a few of the nightime shows I like do not interest Chris, so I have to watch these things in late afternoons and in the middle of the night.

I've been spending a lot of time organizing files, picture albums, and folders on the computer too. I'm trying to get all the crochet and knitting patterns properly organized, and all the corresponding pictures properly titled. I've been consolidating the pictures albums by moving some of them to new locations, like all the American Idol albums are in one folder, all the Crochet and Knitting albums are in another folder, etc. I also need to organize all my recipes that I have saved online into separate categories.

(This post originally had a long section about MSN Groups, but since they were all closed down on 2/23/09, I thought it was unnecessary to keep it.)

Our Anniversary

2008-09-13T01:17:00.002-04:00

September 12 was Chris and my 10th Anniversary. I posted this on all of my MSN groups, and got like no replies, or maybe 1. We went out to The Outback and each ordered one of their new specials. The food was very expensive, but the best meal I have had in I don't know how long. The waiter was very nice. I highly recommend the new carrot cake too, the best I have ever had in a restaurant. On the way out one of my old friends who was at our commitment ceremony was at the entrance on her way in. It was nice to see her, as she moved years ago and I haven't seen her in a very long time. Afterwards we just came home for a relaxing evening of game and competition shows on TV.

Bush Gets Award

2008-08-08T22:27:00.000-04:00

The Cat In the Hat on Aging

2008-08-07T17:04:00.000-04:00

"Naughty" Pictures

2008-07-24T22:55:00.002-04:00

My Latest Thoughts

2008-07-22T02:02:00.002-04:00

Wow, completing the Cakes and Cupcakes message board took SO LONG. I hope the next message board I need to transfer over is patterns, not recipes, LOL! I can't believe the KRCR group is nearly a year old, and I am STILL transfering things over from my old AISP group. Of course during the year I also created a new American Idol group on MSN, a gay group on Yahoo, and 2 blogs on Blogger. I also belong, or belonged, to numerous groups on MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, Yuku, Aimoo, Multiply and Ravelry.

I join groups that I am interested in participating in. If those groups turn out to be abandoned by their managers and taken over by Spammers, I report those groups to MSN, and I ask that everyone else that comes across groups like that should do the same. If a group is active, and does not engage in illegal activity like blatant copyright violations, libel or slander, they have no reason to fear me. If I apply, I expect to be accepted and allowed to participate. If I am not accepted, that alerts me that they are not interested in honesty or members who are truly enthusiastic about their hobbies and interests and looking for friends to share them with.

I would appreciate some honest opinions on this.

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-03T17:31:00.003-04:00

Boston Gay Pride

2008-06-15T20:58:00.000-04:00

Boston Gay Pride was fantastic yesterday. The parade was great, and the vendors were set up so you could go through them w/o feeling all crowded, even though it was the biggest crowd ever. The entertainment was mostly fantastic. All the Kings Men have the funniest act in the world!

http://atkm.com/

By the time Kim Locke came on I had made my way all the way to the front row, right behind the fence in front of the stage. She was so fantastic. I really loved her show.

We decided to stay in and relax today. Chris wanted to go and check out one of the local clubs we still have never been to, but I reminded him that The Tony Awards were on, and he quickly changed his mind. We are enjoying the awards very much.

Vacation 2008- part 1

2008-06-12T01:06:00.000-04:00

Friday while Chris visited with a friend I did lots of laundry and got ready for our weekend away. We went to Boston on Saturday for Gay Pride at Faneuil Hall, but it wasn't very good, so after eating and walking around for a while in the extreme heat, we left to go to Provincetown.
We checked in at the Seasons guest house, and walked around checking out some shops, and went out for pizza. We were both exhausted, and went back to the room early, and just relaxed, sleeping off and on, and watching TV and stuff.

Sunday we had a fabulous breakfast at the guest house. We went to many of the art galleries, and lots more shops, and went out for an early dinner. I had baked, stuffed lobster at The Lobster pot, and it was fantastic. We went to see Suzanne Whang at Vixen. What a funny show! We loved it. We met her after the show and bought her DVD. Check her out here: Suzanne Whang Afterwards we watched Hairspray and Shrek the 3rd on DVDs.

Monday's breakfast was also wonderful. We went to the beach, and then made several stops on the way home, including Michael Shay's for a great lunch. We finally got home around 8 PM. Our cat Fantasia was perfectly fine, I'm happy to say.

We just stayed in relaxing at night, and yesterday, watching lots of TV, expecially on the Tivo. We had leftovers for dinner Monday, and ordered in salads Tuesday. Chris did some errands this morning, and decided to stay in the rest of the day. We again watched lots on Tivo, and I cooked some great mushroom, onion, & pepper cheeseburgers, French fries, cole slaw and pudding.

True Colors Tour

2008-06-02T04:47:00.003-04:00

If you get a chance to go to the True Colors concert tour, GO. Cyndi Lauper, The B52s, Rosie O'Donnell, Caron Kressley, The Cliks and Kat Deluna were all phenomenal in Boston Saturday night. Regina Spektor was not to my liking, but I was dancing in the aisle to The Bs and Cyndi. Best concert ever!

Crocheting and Knitting

2008-04-21T17:06:00.003-04:00

The afghan is coming along beautifully. I did take a break from it for a few days, and spent a little time knitting. I completed a dishcloth knit along at a Yahoo group, and it turned out to be a lovebirds dishcloth. Here are a couple of little things I made for Easter.

Did You File Your Taxes? AI, DWTS, K&C, Anniversary!

2008-04-15T02:39:00.003-04:00

I have not had to file taxes for years as I'm on SSD. This year I had to file to get the rebate, and let me tell you, the people who answer the phones at the IRS are a bunch of fucking cunty bitches! I finally got one of the douchebags to give me proper instructions to fill out the GD form so I could mail it in, as the online filing was totally fucked up. Online filing is also not free!

So, we lost Michael on AI this week, and I cried. He should have been in the top 4. Last week we lost Ramiele, and I cheered! She didn't belong in the top 12.

Who did you vote for? I voted for Carly! Who did you vote for on Dancing With The Stars? Last week I voted for Kristy, and this week for Marissa.

What is everyone knitting and crocheting? For the past week I've been working on a beautiful crocheted afghan called Lace and Bobbles from an old Leisure Arts leaflet. I've made this one before, sticking close to the original colors the first time, but changing them up this time. It's really coming out great.

Chris took the last 3 days off for our 11th anniversary of the day we met. We went out to eat at The Outback and Chili's, and got takeout from Subway today after going shopping. We mostly relaxed and watched lots of stuff on Tivo. He needed to rest after many weeks of stressful work.

I'm Alive

2008-04-05T03:21:00.002-04:00

I know I stopped posting daily again, but I didn't know it had been for over 2 weeks!

I finished the baby sweater I had been knitting, and gave it along with the matching cap and booties to the baby's grandfather when I saw him on Easter. No thank you card yet.

My knitting also included 2 dishcloths, including a very simple one I kind of designed myself when I forgot to bring the pattern I printed out along with me Easter Sunday.

Crochet projects recently finished include a matching hanging towel and potholder set. I just need to sew on a button. I finished up two of my knitting needle rolls that were in need of buttons for ages. I am currently crocheting an eyeglasses case.

I started another group on MSN, this one is just for American Idol!
http://groups.msn.com/AllAmericanIdolAllTheTime

BTW, I was very sick this week, especially Tuesday and Wednesday with a migraine and severe mouth pain from a bad tooth, and stomach problems too. I'm a lot better now.

America Is Voting Wrong!

2008-03-19T22:14:00.003-04:00

Carly in the bottom 3 on AI already? She's one of the top 3! Amanda gone already! BOO! The bottom 3 should have been Ramiele, Chikezie and Kristy, with any of them going. There are 5 in the top 10 that do not belong. David A, Carly, David C, Brooke and Michael are the only ones who still belong. The other 5 suck!

These people belonged in the top 10 instead!

Alaina

Amanda

Asia'h

Danny

David H

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

2008-03-17T03:24:00.002-04:00

Chris Is OK

2008-03-11T01:58:00.002-04:00

The colonoscopy revealed nothing, no polyps or anything, so that's good. There is no clue as to what is causing him to be lethargic though.

American Idol Obsession

2008-03-07T13:50:00.004-05:00

I am very happy that the 3 Davids, Carly and Brooke all made the final 12. I am less enthused about Michael, Amanda, Chikezie, Kristy and Syesha, but they have each had at least one excellent performance, but need to be more consistent. I am not on the Ramiele and Jason bandwagon. I think they have each had at least one good performance, but bad ones too, and no great ones, at least IMHO, and their popularity over Alaina and Danny surprises me. I will continue to be watching every episode and spending way too much time online reading and saving pics and links to videos to post on my group.

Oh yeah, of course I'm still knitting and crocheting. I am knitting socks and a baby sweater. I do not have a crochet project going, but have many UFOs. I need to do the Easter CALs and KALs on my group.

Also, a person who manages an MSN Group sent me a nasty email after applying to my group with a stupid message. She banned me from her group, based on this blog. I denied her application and blocked her from emailing me again.

Should David Hernandez be Eliminated From Idol?

2008-03-04T15:44:00.003-05:00

I say Hell no! He's an excellent singer. Who cares if he worked as a stripper until 6 months ago?

Edit- Luke should be eliminated. Chikezie is probably going with him, although Danny and David H are both vulnerable. David A, David C, Michael and Jason all appear to be safe bets for the final 12.

Edit- 3-6-08- Chikezie should have left instead of Danny. Kristy should have left instead of Asia'h. It was time for Kady to go, and past time for Luke to go.

Two Aunts In The Hospital

2008-03-02T21:41:00.004-05:00

Two of my aunts are in the hospital. One hurt her leg, but is doing very well. We had a nice conversation with her, and squared away some of the BS my mother had been telling me over the years. Of course most of it was not true.

My other aunt had a massive coronary, and is in a coma on life support. I couldn't stay in the room for more than a few minutes. I said goodbye to her, but could not bear seeing her emotionless eyes, and seeing her being artificially kept alive.

Update- Aunt Irene is doing quite well. We had a very nice visit with her yesterday. Aunt Ida is totally unresponsive, her eyes are completely vacant. She will not come out of the coma. She is 84, nearly 85 years old.

Update 3/11/08- Aunt Ida was removed from life support on Friday, and passed away peacefully Sunday morning. It appears there may be no wake or funeral, just a memorial mass at a later date. I'm waiting to see what I hear tomorrow.

Aunt Irene went home Thursday.

America Blew It

2008-02-29T18:26:00.002-05:00

Last week the 4 bootees on AI were people with no chance of winning. This week America eliminated 2 of my top 12, and one who was on the bubble, including my favorite girl. Jason Y was the only one who deserved to go this week, or maybe next. The others all deserved at least one more week, and Alaina deserved many more weeks.

I See I Missed Posting Here Yesterday

2008-02-28T17:39:00.002-05:00

Too much time on the various American Idol websites I guess. I would like to see Jason C, Syesha, Ramiele and Luke leave tonight, but it's highly unlikely most, or any of them are leaving. my taste seems to be different than the American public on everyone except the number 1, David Archuleta!

AISP Group Updated

2008-02-26T22:53:00.002-05:00

I've been mostly concentrating on my knitting and crochet group, except for posting tons of AI stuff on the TV group. Today I did lots of updating, adding more TV related website links, and posting in over 200 discussions. Hopefully the members will post replies in at least some of them.

AI was really good tonight. David Archuleta brought me to tears.

Not Feeling Well

2008-02-25T22:12:00.002-05:00

Sorry, bad stomach ache tonight. No desire to write long post.

Academy Awards

2008-02-24T19:50:00.002-05:00

The awards are on in 40 minutes. We are now watching Baba Wawa interview Harrison Ford.

Just Another Day

2008-02-23T20:43:00.002-05:00

I was exhausted today. I heard Chris rumbling around as he brought home Girl Scout cookies that I asked him to buy, and lots of soda, and then getting ready for work. I finally fell back asleep and didn't get up until almost 1:45 PM. I'm still doing my regular postings on my groups that are not done yet, and I caught up with most of my email correspondence. We ate McDonald's for dinner while watching The Biggest Loser, LOL! I'm now busy trying to win auctions on eBay, and Chris reminded me I need to go tape Torchwood. I have no desire to bring back the memories of college right now, so I am not writing part 4 of Matt's Life just yet.

Matt's Life Part 3

2008-02-22T17:06:00.004-05:00

I need to backtrack a little here. I remember at age 15 acting all mature and drinking scotch. But then soon after I became obsessed with The Osmonds and had a crush on Marie. I think it was more that I wanted to be like her than anything else. I was not about to become a Mormon, but I knew they didn't drink alcohol, so I decided that I would not drink alcohol anymore either. I started to realize that my parents and many other family members were alcoholics. I got sick of the drunken behavior, ruining holidays and all kinds of things, and I started pouring bottles down the sink. Most of them smoked too, it was disgusting.

At some point I was told that my mother had several miscarriages before I was born, and several after. I remember when I was around 17 or 18 that my mother got pregnant. One night I heard them having violent sex in their bedroom which was across the hall from mine, and I will not repeat the disgusting words, but I knew my mother wanted to lose the baby! Now I wonder how many times she did things to induce previous miscarriages. I think it's a miracle I am alive! This is the first time I have ever written this, and have never said it to anyone before. It's time to let it out.

Also during my teens I finally had proper allergy tests done, and started immunization shots. I had to get them for years, even into college. I was never able to have cats or dogs for any length of time and it was due to allergies. I had been taking pills for allergy attacks for years, but the immunizations finally stopped the allergies.

I mean constant illnesses and a drunken family, no wonder I had a hard time making friends. I will try to continue tomorrow with my college experiences.

Matt's Life Part 2

2008-02-21T17:05:00.002-05:00

OK, that takes us up to the time I was 10-11. I saw the moon landing. I was not as excited as seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan years earlier.

It seemed we were being pressured to date the opposite sex, and go to school dances. I remember the first one, going with a girl older than me, while in 6th grade, and I called to have my parent's pick me up, saying I was sick. What it was was that it was Friday night and I wanted to be home watching the very popular sitcoms of the day, like The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family instead of dancing with an ugly, nasty girl.

I again had to deal with a school bully, and even had to share a locker with him for a while. But then I was missing so much school, I'd forget where my locker was, and the combination.

I loved reading, and started working as a library aide, which I did for about 8 years.

The nature walk was still a place I liked going to, and I also would sometimes skip taking the bus home and walk.

Around age 12 I had my first girlfriend. We had known each other for years. I also became very good friends with my art teacher, and would often spend time in her office instead of going to classes I hated.

I remembered a lot of my relatives knitted and crocheted, and I didn't really care that they were all female. KTel came out with the KTel Knitter, and that was my first experience doing anything like knitting and crochet. I learned how to do real crochet and knitting from my mother's McCall's Needlework and Crafts magazines. I got some help from my Aunt Bea too. We were very close, and I remember often riding my bike to visit with her.

We lived next door to my grandmother, and I was at her house often. I remember how she liked to watch her "stories" like Days of Our Lives, so growing up I sometimes saw such shows. I started watching Dark Shadows regularly, and General Hospital when I was home sick. When Dark Shadows ended, it was years before I got back into soaps again.

At age 13, after some school dances, and hanging out and such, my girlfriend decided to break up as we moved on to high school. Years later I found out she married the brother of a child mollester who was in our class. He had come on to me once, but being a naiive young boy, I didn't know it until years later when I remembered the incident.

So I moved onto high school in the city I live in now, being bussed their from the neighboring town I lived in. I retained some of the grade school friendships, and made some new friends, but none that lasted much beyond high school.

I was not into sports, and since my mom worked days and my dad worked nights, I was not able to get to many school functions. I was in the library club for 4 years, theater for 2, and art club for 1 year. I was in one or two plays, and we made a film in theater class. I continued to knit and crochet, and also did candlemaking, glass cutting, painting, drawing, crewel embroidery, cross stitch and needlepoint.

My love of TV, music, reading and movies continued. I went to all the Disney movies with one or both of my parents. Then I started riding my bike to the mall to see movies on my own. I spent most of my allowance on 45 records and dollar movies. I also bought all those teen fan magazines too, and had pictures of all my favorites, male and female, all over my walls.

During these years it seems we lost some of the family friends, either due to death, or arguments of some kind, very sad. I did still see the family a lot, and we always played all kinds of games. I love board games. I also learned lots of card games, and started playing poker around age 14.

I dated a believe 3 girls during high school. 2 of them were one date each, a dance, and a concert, both held at the school. The other one I went out with a few times, but she did not like that I drank beer, called my mother a bitch (she IS,) and was not masculine, oh well. It was at a party at my parent's house when I was 14 that I drank 3 beers, and was pretty buzzed, but didn't know what that was at the time. She didn't like it. I had never before had more than little glasses of beer or wine, but had been drinking things like that since I was 4. I had said in school that she was my girlfriend, and she went ballistic and had a hissy fit. She was friends with my cousin when she lived in a different town, and we became friends when she moved to my town. The friendship became strained after that. She shared a last name with my maternal grandparents, but there was no relation. Funny thing is, my father had once dated her mother.

My knitting and crocheting skills were improving, and I had been making gifts for my family and friends for years. I remember some of the things I made were probably pretty stupid, like acrylic hot pants for example, but they were in all the magazines.

I wasn't sure about going to college at first so when it came to junior year in HS, I was taking biology with sophomores, then took chemistry as a senior with juniors. I remember they tried to force me to take gym class, and I went for a week, and then quit. I was only into academics. I had started exercising on my own, and lost weight and at 15 went as low as 117 lbs. I said I would bring a doctor's note to excuse me from gym class, but I never did, and they didn't bother pursuing it further. In my semior year I really pushed myself with hard courses, and got my highest gpa for any of my HS years. I took the SATs and applied to 2 colleges I was interested in.

While some kids worked in the summer, I swam, rode my bike, went to movies, occasionally helped out the neighbors, and worked in the garden. I kept watching TV and listening to movies and crafting. When I was 17 and it was time to go to college, I lived on campus, and was ready to go. This was 1976, and the millenium was such a big thing that whole year. We regularly spent July 4th with family, and that was no different that year. I remember my and my cousin's graduations before that, and going out with my parents to Ho Jo's. 2 of my HS friends were there, including my former grade school girlfriend. We remained friends during HS, but not as close as before. We had a good time that night.

Matt's Life Part 1

2008-02-20T12:33:00.002-05:00

I was born in 1958. Eisenhower was president, and there were only 48 states. Ellen Degeneres, Michael Jackson, Alan Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Drew Carey and many other famous people were born that year.

Although I am familiar with much music of the 50's and early 60's, I do not remember anything else prior to 1962-63 when I was 4 years old. I remember being at the beach and being terrified the first time I ever heard a fog horn. I also remember drinking sips of beer and juice glasses of sweet wine as early as 4 years old.

I started school in 1963, but remember missing an awful lot as I was always sick. It wasn't until years later that my allergies were diagnosed. I did not meet the requirements for days attended to pass from kindergarten to first grade, but since the nuns would bring my lessons to my home, and I always did them, they passed me.

Before I ever started school, my grandfather passed away. I really don't remember him anymore. I was only 4. Months later President Kennedy was assasinated. At 5 years old I did not understand what that meant. I couldn't understand why Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo and House Party weren't on the TV. Already at 4 and 5 I had become a TV addict with all the time I was home sick from school. A family friend passed away too, I believe in her 90's. Like with my grandfather, I did not go to the funeral as I was too young to understand death.

Around that time, our local radio station started playing Beatles records imported from England. They have been my favorites for almost 44 1/2 years. I loved all the British bands and singers, and Elvis, The Supremes, The Beach Boys and many others. I was watching TV or listening to the radio all the time.

I can't remember any of the kids in kindergarten. I do remember a TV at school though that we got to watch occasionally. I seem to remember seeing Babar. In first grade I seem to remember making friends with at least one little girl, but none of the boys, really. I was beaten up by this little bully more than once during first and second grade. Along with my frequent illnesses, that also made me not want to go to school. I think those first few years of school were traumatic for me. I remember being abused by the psychotic nuns, and I can not remember any of their names, or any of the kids names. I wouldn't know them if I saw them today.

Another thing I remember is that I knew how to read at 4 years old, even before going to kindergarten. That stupid Dick and Jane book was way below my reading level in first grade. Spot the dog was retarded.

Back in second grade, about 2/3 of the way through the year, I was transfered to public school from the private Catholic school I was going to. My parents had never confronted the parents of the bully, or the nuns, to get that situation taken care of. I did want to leave the school though, but it wasn't until years later that I realized how much my parents cared more about money than me. It was not out of concern for me or my welfare that they had me change schools, it was so they didn't have to pay for me to go to private school. It was years later before I found out or figured out all the things my parents did to screw up me and my life.

When I started at public school, even though I had missed so much time at private school, they were more advanced in their teachings, and what they were teaching in second grade at public school was below my level of education. I was to find out years later that they wanted to skip me from 2nd grade to 4th grade, but my parents would not allow it as I was already one of the younger kids in second grade. What hogwash! They deprived me of the chance of finishing grade school at least 2 years early! At least I got to join the chorus though, and got to sing a lot, although I wasn't very good, but I enjoyed it.

I know we did the show Oliver, and I was one of Fagin's boys, and also the announcer. I really wanted to play Oliver, but I wasn't good enough, and couldn't understand it at that age. I remember another show we did in which astronauts were involved, and I volunteered my mother to make the costumes for those 2 kids. She bitched no end. Lazy bitch! Parents are supposed to be involved.

I continued to miss a good deal of school, and regularly watched local programs like Major Mudd, and Rex Traylor's Boomtown. I went on to meet the stars of both shows years later, and have seen Rex perform at fairs at least twice in more recent years, although he is quite old now. I made some friendships, with both boys and girls, but none of them turned out to be lifelong, sad to say.

After a couple of years I was transfered to a different school in our town, that was closer to our home. I was there through 8th grade. I remember being an incontinent child, and having several pants wetting accidents in school. This of course made it hard to make friends. I also wet the bed until I was about 11. These were very embarassing for me, and I was happy to find out many years later that I was not alone, when Michael Landon admitted to the same problems as a child.

During these years I had to start taking gym classes in school, and I HATED them. We never had that in Catholic school. I wasn't good at anything. My father never taught me any sports. My mother tried to teach me to fish, but I hated it. I really wanted to ice skate, and was bought skates, but never any lessons, so I was never any good. Although a thin child, at age 7 I had my tonsils out, and started gaining weight, and was chubby until age 15, when I finally lost weight. I had to wear husky boys clothes. I couldn't do pullups, pushups, rope climbing or anything like that. I also remember having very few clothes, and often wearing the same shirt and pants to school for 5 days in a row. Maybe my pants wetting accidents were a subconcious way of getting to wear different clothes the next day. Many of the other kids came from wealthy families, and had different outfits every day. In Catholic school we wore uniforms, so I guess my mother didn't think anything of having me wear the same clothes for days, or she just didn't care that doing so made me an outcast.

We used to have a nature trail at the school, and I remember taking walks on it, even during class time instead of going to some classes. I also remember going through the woods with other kids picking lady slippers for the teacher, not knowing they were protected and were not supposed to be picked.

I also remember going to lots of country music concerts in a neighboring town at this filthy outdooor place that eventually closed down. One time when we were there, this skanky little girl was like all over me. She remembered me as the new boy in school, but thought my name was Michael. She was filty, and I didn't remember her at all. I was 7, and I did have some female friends at school, but not this girl.

While growing up we would spend most weekends visiting relatives or family friends. I always enjoyed playing with my cousins more than the kids at school, and when some of the family friends started having kids, I had more kids to play with, although some were much younger than me. I remember being a very well behaved child, so when I did misbehave, I felt the punishments were too severe, as I was almost always good.

During these early years I remember developing tastes for Chinese food and seafood, and going out for one or the other for most holidays, birthdays and special occasions. I remember having a few birthday parties as a kid, including one with a bunch of kids from school, but I found out most of them did not want to come, and their parents forced them. Rather traumatic for a kid. I would see other people besides family at my cousin's birthday parties, but mine were usually family, and frequently just from my mother's side. My father's sisters were snobby bitches.

I remember the days when we would give out Valentines to the whole class. I wanted to be friends with everyone, so I gave them to everyone. It was deemed strange, as although it seemed it was considered appropriate for the girls to do that, the boys were apparently only supposed to give them to the girls. How ridiculous! We were little kids, and it was merely a friendly thing to do. My God, even then they were teaching us to be homophobic. As if little children had romantic feelings!

That's pretty much how it went for the next few years. I got chubby, was sick a lot, watched lots of TV, listened to lots of radio, and around age 9 started getting my own records. I then got my own record player, and cassette tape recorder, and became obsessed with them. I got a lot of the toy fads of the day too, but never got the easy bake oven I wanted, but once got to play with one that belonged to my female cousins. I did get troll dolls though, which were hardly masculine. I also seem to remember that around age 9 was when I first started learning to cook and bake, pretty much on my own.

I think this was during my time as a cub scout. I remember the den mother was the mother of one of my classmates, and she was a total loon. My mother was the assistant den mother for a while. I decided I hated cub scouts and never became a boy scout. I never understood why we didn't have delicious cookies to sell like the girls.

My father was pretty much Archie Bunker, a true bigot. As such, I did not realize it was bad to insult Jews, and people of other races and religions. I never felt that people of other faiths, colors or nationalities were any better or worse than us though, but I do know I made some really stupid statements as a child, thanks to my father's influence, w/o knowing what those words meant. You see, although I was book smart, I was very naiive.

Well that took me through about age 10, with no close, long lasting friendships. I was still too young to see and understand everything that was going on around me. I was very close to one of my uncles, but I didn't understand until years later that some of the things he did around and to me would be considered abuse. I just thought he loved me and wanted to be with me since he had no kids of his own, and I actually was closer to him than I was to my father. Years later I remembered how he seemed obsessed with pulling my pants down and making me expose myself to anyone who wanted to look. Now I know that was sexual abuse, but I didn't know it as a little boy. He was married to my father's sister, and I later found out that she was a nasty hypocrite. She probably was the one who drove him to drinking.

American Idol Guys Tonight

2008-02-19T21:01:00.002-05:00

Most of the guys have been at least good so far. David Archuleta and David Cook have been the best of the first 7.

I'm Pretty active on eBay again

2008-02-18T14:00:00.001-05:00

I've won a lot of auctions lately, for some wonderful yarn, and a couple of pattern books. I get great bargains, don't have to drive around, and have fun looking at hundreds of auctions.