Wednesday, November 24, 2021

That moment

That moment when you decide to make a blanket for a new friend who is getting married… and the gift giving is in less than two weeks… and you discover that you don’t have enough yarn - even though you suspected you didn’t… and it’s the day before Thanksgiving… and there’s no way you can wait to get the yarn, so you get up early to run to the store… so you can get back and spend the day crocheting in front of the fire instead of cleaning the house… 

Yep… that’s it in a nutshell. 

I’ll post a picture when it’s finished. 

Monday, November 22, 2021

Moving towards….

Thanksgiving… 

Around here we are thankful for all the blessings we have received. We are thankful for the home we have, the family we love, and all the good things that make up our life out here in the boonies. The list is long and when we contemplate that list, we smile. 

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on that, but around here Thanksgiving very quickly leads to Christmas… that means that things need to be done and in place for Thursday. This year dinner is easy - steak on the grill to be served with all kinds of yummy veggies. Dessert is to be provided by LLB - one of her famous lemon meringue pies and one oh so yummy chocolate mousse pie. Oh I cannot even wait! It’s a good thing she arrives Thursday because if she arrived with those pies on Wednesday, I’d eat every bit of them and she’d have to make more for Thursday. I have zero self control around pie - especially LLB’s pie. 

Today I’m going to be moving things around and putting things in place for Christmas deployment after dinner on Thursday. At the moment, I’m typing here. No worries! I got this! I’ll run around like a chicken and get it all done. But first, I need to futz with the laundry, run the dishwasher, clean out the wood stove, dust, and vacuum… then I’ll get things moved around, out, and ready to go. 

I’d best get to it! 

Remember - count your blessings - you’ll be amazed at how many there are.

Friday, November 19, 2021

The Rittenhouse Case


Read… Understand…

By Douglas Andrews of The Patriot Post


The fate of 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse is now in the hands of a 12-person jury — a jury that spent all day Tuesday in deliberations and will pick up today where it left off. Ultimately, we believe it’ll do the right thing, the legal thing, and acquit him.

As Rittenhouse’s onetime lawyer, John Pierce, made clear: “He was legally entitled to have that firearm with him. And it’s just clear as day from the evidence, most powerfully from the hundreds of angles of video evidence, that it was absolute perfect self-defense.”

Absolute perfect self-defense.

Pierce, who heads the National Constitutional Law Union — which he calls “the ACLU for the rest of us” — says: “This case should have never been brought. In my view, this is blatant prosecutorial misconduct. It’s malicious prosecution.”

The man responsible for this travesty, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, saw his case fall apart all around him, as one state’s witness after another wound up helping the defense during cross-examination. Binger, perhaps seeing his career dissipation light begin to flicker, decided to bring lesser charges at the last moment, and to claim that Rittenhouse provoked his attackers. Here’s hoping the jury sees through it.

During closing arguments, Binger kept calling Kyle Rittenhouse an “active shooter.” We don’t think that word means what Binger thinks it means. If so, then Rittenhouse was the first “active shooter” in history to bypass dozens of human targets as he defended himself against a relatively small and very specific group of attackers.

Binger, though, isn’t just a menace in the courtroom; he’s a menace with a firearm as well. As everyone who watched Monday’s closing arguments saw, the state’s smarmy, out-of-control prosecutor violated the most basic rules of gun safety when he grabbed Rittenhouse’s AR-15 and pointed it into the crowded courtroom gallery with his finger on the trigger.


Those on the Left who’ve rushed to Binger’s defense by claiming that he knew it wasn’t loaded should remember Alec Baldwin’s infamous utterance: “Why was I handed a hot gun?”

As Power Line’s John Hinderaker rightly noted, “The world is a safer place with a gun in Kyle Rittenhouse’s hands than in Thomas Binger’s.”

Suffice it to say: This hack prosecutor belongs neither in a courtroom nor anywhere near a deadly weapon.

And so, after he wins an acquittal, we hope young Mr. Rittenhouse finds a good attorney and sues the hell out of Joe Biden for defamation. Because not even a cognitively challenged president should be allowed to call a young man a “white supremacist” without so much as a shred of evidence. Not even his paid liar, Jen Psaki, can defend him on this front.


And then, after suing the president for his clearly defamatory tweet, we hope Rittenhouse goes after the media, Covington Catholic style. Because these agenda-driven leftists clearly haven’t learned their lesson.

“He should be acquitted,” said Harvard Law emeritus professor and constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz. “If I were a juror, I would vote that there was reasonable doubt that he did act in self-defense, and then he’ll bring lawsuits and that’s the way to answer. I’ve sued CNN, the Covington people have sued CNN. You know, the idea is to make the media accountable for deliberate and willful lies, and that is consistent with the First Amendment.”

What willful lies are we talking about? Rittenhouse wasn’t a militia member, as the media regularly reported. Nor did he fire “60 rounds,” as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said — not even close. Even the “fact-checkers” at PolitiFact lied about Rittenhouse, writing, “It is against the law in Wisconsin for someone younger than 18 to possess a dangerous weapon.” Wrong. Wisconsin state law says 17-year-olds are allowed to carry rifles as long as their barrels meet a minimum length requirement, which Rittenhouse’s AR-15 did. That’s why the state had to drop its gun charge against him on Monday, just before closing arguments began.

Nor did Rittenhouse “drive across state lines with a deadly weapon.” The weapon was always in Wisconsin. It’s true that he lives in Antioch, Illinois, just across the border from Kenosha. But his dad, his grandmother, and other relatives live in Kenosha, and that’s also where Rittenhouse worked as a lifeguard, as his defense attorney pointed out. He wasn’t an outsider or a “chaos tourist” or a “vigilante,” as mainstream media organizations kept telling us. Kenosha was Kyle Rittenhouse’s community, and he was trying to protect it from the mob when it became clear during two prior nights of rioting that the adults weren’t willing to do so.

Remember: Kyle Rittenhouse was attacked by the mob — specifically, by three men with criminal records and histories of violent behavior — and he was rightly in fear for his life or of great bodily harm. The shameless Binger called them “a crowd full of heroes.”

Indeed, we were told repeatedly by the state that Gaige Grosskreutz, its star witness, was a paramedic. But what we weren’t told, as The Daily Mail points out, is that Grosskreutz is also a violent career criminal with a laundry list of priors stretching back more than a decade. “These include domestic abuse, prowling, trespass, two DUIs, felony burglary and two charges of carrying a firearm while intoxicated — one of which took place when he was banned as a felon from carrying a firearm.”

Too bad, said the state. Kyle Rittenhouse should’ve just taken his medicine. “Everybody takes a beating sometimes, right?” said Kenosha County’s disgraceful assistant DA, James Kraus, who managed to stoop even lower than Binger. “He brought a gun to a fistfight, and he was too cowardly to use his own fists to fight his way out.” If only Kraus had been there that night. If only Kraus had been set upon by that mob. Perhaps then we’d have seen what real cowardice looks like.

What Kyle Rittenhouse did in Kenosha that night was many things, but it wasn’t cowardice. It was self-defense. His acquittal can’t come soon enough.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Current situation

I love fall because it means the return of fuzzy sweaters and fires in the wood stove. Mini loves the fire, too and spends most of her time curled up in the couch enjoying the warmth. 


I’ve been crocheting like a crazy person. I’m currently working on a lovely green blanket-shawl while I enjoy the warm emanating from the wood stove. You can see the finished product from the thick gray yarn in the background behind Mini. That blanket is fantastic! 



Monday, November 08, 2021

Yummy Yarn

I got this wonderful thick yarn as a gift from a friend a while back. I debated what to do with it for months because the skeins are large, but don’t have measurements on them. 


I decided to take a chance that I could make a blanket with the 3 skeins I have. So far so good. I am more than half way through the lighter 2 skeins. I think I  have enough to make a lapghan. I think that the recipient of this wonderful thick lapghan will get years of warm snuggles out of it! 




Sunday, November 07, 2021

Done!

That moment when you finish writing up the very last minutes you’ll ever take for your HOA. Yep! Celebration time! I will not do that again - ever. It is a thankless job. The position is not appreciated - except by those who have done it. I was the secretary. My dear friend was the president. We served together for many years. We saw the neighborhood through a lot of crazy issues. We did the best we could. We gave hours and hours of time - willingly - for the benefit of the community. 

Today all we heard were complaints. We suggested that those who were complaining the loudest get involved and serve. Yep - you guessed it - no dice. 

Do you know that we got not one public thank you for the years of volunteer service we gave. We got a few lightly veiled (very public) nasty swipes from a couple of people who stayed on. Nothing like being tossed under the bus for something we didn’t do.  They revealed their true colors. 

My dear friend and I are honorable people who try hard, put others first, and are good stewards. A couple of our neighbors came over and told us that we were appreciated, but for the most part I’m pretty disappointed. It will be a long time before we serve in any formal capacity. That said, we will keep on top of things, attend the meetings, and make sure they serve the community properly. 


Friday, November 05, 2021

Making time

Today I had a leisurely lunch with a friend. It was nice to sit and enjoy her company. Earlier this week, I spent some time with another friend sharing stories over fancy coffee in my kitchen. Tomorrow, Mr and I are headed to our local cemetery to place flags on the graves of soldiers. Tomorrow night is supper club! I am spending time doing things with family and friends. I am purposefully making time to do the things I enjoy with people I enjoy. 

I am currently curled up in my bed listening to Mini purr. She is warming my feet and telling me it’s time to sleep. We have a busy day ahead! 


Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Busy…

I want to write every day. Heck, I want to crochet, read, cross stitch, and sit on my porch with friends every day. Alas, time is fleeting. Groceries, laundry, bells, and other commitments keep me running. Today I remembered that my inspection sticker said “October 21”. Yes, it is November…oops!  Yes, I went to Toyota this afternoon and remedied that little situation. I could have worked on my crochet project while I was there, but instead, I updated the apps on my phone. Why? Excellent internet connection, of course! 
I am a bit behind on Christmas gift making, but I will catch up. The weather is getting colder, the fire will be on in the wood stove, and I’ll be curled up with my crochet and TV. 
As for writing? I’ll keep trying to find things to write about… I have lots to say, but some of it is whining and some of it is kvetching - and I know you don’t want to read about that! Or maybe you do? Eh- I’ll think about it!