I Can Haz Fitnezz

Yep, hell has frozen over and I've joined a health club. Weight coming off was too inspiring; in fact I had dreams of waking up with it all suddenly back on if I didn't start exercising. Not to mention the weakness of my joints and back due to arthritis and other aging pains in the patooty. This is day three. If all I do is show up and do half an hour on the treadmill it's a tremendous victory for me. They have a row of machines you work your way through to work all of the major body muscles. I was pleasantly surprised to learn you do it every third day - not every day - to let your muscles "recover." Nark! I thought the idea was punishment and misery EVERY day which is why I've put it off lo these last 17 years. My rheumatologist recommended swimming to help the fibromyalgia and rotator cuff tendonitis (more than you wanted to know, I know...) and for awhile a year or so ago I did go with DF Bethie 3 times a week. Just couldn't face it this time. Had gotten over the trauma of undressing in the ladies locker room and showering with 12 other women - they were all Geezer Babes like me with traditionally built rolls of fat in all the usual places so it wasn't nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. But just couldn't kick my own behind enough to get down there and go through all the prequel and sequel of getting in and out of the water. The club I joined is open 5-11 p.m., has a super cheap month-to-month rates, and I got a special summer deal where I didn't have to pay a join-up fee. It's 1.5 miles from the house eggzactly. I could walk there or back if I needed to with no problem! DF Gail is also a member and we are going to compassionately drag each other there when one of us is lagging. Could be sooooon Gail, could be soooon.....

Found out tonight (Sunday) that they close at 7 p.m. on the weekends. Rats! I WOULD join the only one in the city that wasn't open 24 hours (did I mention the club's name is 24-hour Fitness?) It costs about $10 more a month to have the pass that lets you into any of their club locations in town any time. Sounds worthwhile once I have been serious for a couple months and the pass would be a convenience, not to mention overcoming any excuse I had because I was running errands in another part of town that day. So for tonight - had to come home and grab the dog for a serious walk - she was deliriously happy about that! And the route I took was half an hour with little inclines the whole way. (Say GOOD GIRL real loud at this point!) Our previous much-missed doggies who have passed on (and never send so much as a POSTCARD from beyond) would just plant all four feet and refuse to move if the smells were really good, and by then my heart rate have gone back to normal. But the Trixie dog is a good walker. You know dogs - they invented "scratch and sniff" and at each point along the way where there's a tree, post, hydrant or tall stand of ivy, they have to stop and check their peemail. Not to mention that World Peace seems to depend on circling and finding the EXACT right place to empty out. Trixie is a fast walker and I can give her a light tug when she's found a new smell and she's off again. When you see people running with their dogs - the dogs didn't start out that way - they had to be trained not to stop and do all the doggie investigative things. So after coming home huffing and puffing (both of us) I tried to get her to drink water. No dice. This is the most water-resistant dog I've ever met. I soak her kibble and cover it with water in her twice-a-day meals so she'll go through the water and the food. Tonight? Showed her the water dish (pant,wheeze,stare), no dice. So we played bobbing for biskies. You wanna biscuit? (dropped four mini ones in the water dish), go get it! Worked great. Drink drink, chomp, drink chomp chomp. Sheesh.

So my first day at the club I had the free orientation with the young spandex-clad muscles-tight-as-rocks woman who had a lovely rictus smile on her face every time I asked a question. She showed me how to use all the core strength machines. When we got to the biceps and triceps machines I tried to convince her that I didn't think I actually had those muscles, but she insisted they were in there somewhere. This is one of the main reasons I wanted to go. In my youth - even tho I didn't do much exercise then either- I had terribly strong arms and hands. Now they are much weaker than average due to stuff you don't want to be bored with, so on some of those machines I could barely get the bars to move on the lightest weights. But, time will tell. I guess I've been afraid that even exercise wouldn't really bring back that strength - but I'm setting out to prove myself wrong. She also took my measurements and weight (shades of the swimming locker room) at her desk at the front of the gym (in front of a big WINDOW at the front of the gym). They put weights on their handy dad-burned scale that you almost trip over on your way in to make sure it's accurate. Turns out I've lost 4 more pounds. I just can't figure out why I'm not fingernails-down-the-blackboard struggling with the whole diet and exercise thing, but you can bet I'm going with the flow. The newly converted are often like this - even if they are a "retread" (word from the Overeaters' Anonymous Program meaning you succeeded, had it all, lost it, and are back to try again).

Homies Gail and Ryan and I are knitting at Top Pot on 35th at 70th in Wedgewood (mega-donuts and coffee place) more regularly now on Saturday mornings. Since Ryan and I are not morning people you know we consider this important and worthwhile! Sometimes we drown out the children with our guffaws. I ripped 5 rows of stockinette back on a lace shawl for Gail so she could fix her lace row that had an owee. Ryan and I bullied her into it. You KNOW how great it is when a friend rips for you - it's a gift to get you back where you were so you don't have the bleak ripping part to look forward to. I learned this from my wonderful knitting teacher Susanna Hansson (she of Bohus teaching and other fame). One thing she would always do for us in class if we noticed a boo boo (always 10-20 rows after the fact) would be to rip back for us and get us set to move ahead again. It's the ripping that's discouraging so you tell your self "I'll fudge it" when you KNOW you won't be happy until you fix it. And Gail charted something for me while I was ripping that I was struggling with. Ryan got to finally try on her "Good enough Gansey" and see that tho the armholes were a tad big, a few adjustments could quickly make them right.

Thought I had seen all the new Jamieson colors and hadda list of same, but Karen of Two Swans (no connection to the "Swan" Flu) brought a new one called Fool’s Gold (No. 289) to the last Feral's meeting. I'm in love! It's one of those mercurial colors that changes every time you look at it or put it next to something. Karen doesn't have all the new colors up on her site, but you can see most of them on the updated Camilla Valley page - tho on their page it's a dark olivey looking thing when it's really a much lighter goldish color - very matte, and goes beautifully with some of the other new colors like "Autumn, Paprika, Merlin, and Delph." Drool. I highly recommend buying from Karen (totally unsolicited plug) because she has everything you need for Fair Isle (Feral) knitting and is lightening quick with her shipments. Plus she's a nice person - at least, she's never bashed me personally! I have absolutely NO psychic scars from our encounters. Can't say THAT about everyone, now can you?

Fool's gold in shade. This picture conveys more of its matte and moody true self.

Fool's gold in sun. Thought this picture made it too bright at the time I took it - but it's still fairly true to the color. Will make a wonderful neutral to bounce brighter colors off of.

The Learning Curve

At last - an idea for people who kill plants. I read the "Unclutterer" blog regularly (who'd have thought, eh?) and they have guest bloggers all the time. This one talks about high quality fake plants - from France yet! Much as digging in the dirt is sort fun (cept for the wormies and things), it's work that needs to be constant, and constant I'm not - in terms of housework and outside-of-the-house work. This woman is serious and is winning the battle.

Learning curves work two ways as far as I can see. a) you want to learn and new skill and are excited about total immersion in it; and b) something breaks and you have no choice and you go at it with much trepidation. Did I mention the something that breaks is always one day to three years past its warranty? The old Sears dryer from the 60's that was in the house when we moved in didn't break for fourteen years - even tho already old. The new refrigerator we got only two years ago will cost enough to fix that we may as well get a new one. And my faithful '97 Jeep Cherokee Sport comes up with enough "new" problems at every scheduled maintenance that I could be putting a down payment on a new car - which I really do NOT want to do. At least with yarn, you know WHY it breaks. The moths got it, you hooked your ring in a yarn float, your pet chewed a hole in it. Even then things are not beyond hope. BTW, those new Zip Lock giant bags are GREAT for storing woollies for the winter. I blogged about them once before. As long as you put everything away in a clean condition, it gets left alone in the bags. Amazon sells them as well as your local grocery or Target or just by Googling - they come in so MANY giant sizes now. I may crawl in one myself and not come out until everything's fixed!

Blessings to Mothers Everywhere

The older I get, the more I understand - the way it's supposed to happen, right? Even though I'm a dog mother and not a person mother, I have so much more compassion these days for the pains and sorrows and joys that mothers go through. Had a lovely dinner last night with Dear Friend Sandi, her husband Don, daughter Rhonda and friend Ann in celebration. Ann is a dog mother too. She rescued a German Shepherd named Addie who is a gentle, sweet, and timid soul. We all love to see her and give her pats whenever we can. I'm always shocked at anyone who can abuse an animal and/or abandon it, but thank God there are many of us who want to make up for it and do what healing we can.


For anyone who doesn't follow the Mason Dixon blog, several weeks ago Kay lost her beloved husband Peter after a sudden illness. People are knitting squares for Afghans for Afghans in Peter's memory as Kay's preference rather than getting knitting or donations directly. It's a charity she's long publicized and supported. People on Ravelry are all over this. Today, Kay wrote an entry and showed a few of the afghans that people at her LYS have already made up. Between the entry and the comments, I suggest you have your Kleenex box close to your computer before you click on.


I seem less adverse to admitting my own foibles on the blog these days. Took me a week to unpack from dye day since I bring a lot of the stoves and bits of equipment that come in useful. That means the things I dyed sat in Ziploc bags for a week, germinating. Fortunately, it didn't hurt them - so yesterday was wash and rinse, wash and rinse, rinse some more until the water finally ran clear. Since most of us are still new to how little dye it actually takes to make a dye bath give good color, sometimes the rinsing goes on forever. When everything works right, the dye gets all sucked up by the wool and the water is almost clear - this is called "exhausting" the dye bath. You can always add more dye if you need it so this works well. Sometimes we get over-zealous with our amounts (I'm certainly not exempting myself from this description) and two or three people dye things in the remnants of the dye bath and it still could take more!


So here are my pretties drying on the front porch. There is nothing so wonderful as a washer to spin out the water once the fiber has been washed and rinsed. Dries overnight! I dyed a bunch of silk bells (caps?) and a bunch of shawl blanks of fingering-weight Rambouillet wool that Rebecca of Both Twins knit up for me on my knitting machine. I originally meant to paint these up in different colors like sock blanks but it never seemed to happen, so I went for solid colors and hope to use them up sort of like Kauni yarn, knitting a pattern with two of the contrasting colors in a sort of faux-isle technique. Couldn't find a really good description of what Faux Isle means. Many people use one plain color and one variegated color so they never strand with more than those two yarns, and the color changes come from the variegated yarn changing through the pattern. Perhaps I'd better get or dye some variegated yarn in the same wait to try this. Would that be project No. 872? Probably.


Had a chance to see Michele of Toots LeBlanc and her mother Jeriene for a few minutes today - she was in town for Mother's Day. Since I believe my selling-at-craft-fair days are pretty much over, I've been trading her glass display heads for her booth. They show off her hat patterns made from her wonderful rare-breed yarn nicely. She says her booth - which she runs with brother Carl, will be at OFF, Black Sheep, Sock Summit, and SOAR this year. She also has a full-time job so this truly amazes me. The Yarn Harlot talked about making a shawl with one of her best-known yarns a month or so back. It's a fingering-weight merino/angora blend and is really lovely. It's only now after knitting for the last 14 years or so (late bloomer here) that I'm starting to enjoy knitting wool that is naturally colored. This is a result of spinning in Judith MacKenzie's classes and seeing Michele's blends and how wonderful the natural beastie colors are. I thought all the naturals would be way too blah, but it's just like your Mama said - go with neutrals and then accent with colors - everything goes farther and it's a sophisticated look. Don't see myself as sophisticated since I principally shop at Value Village and eBay for the truly discounted, but I guess I could let a little sophistication sneak in.

Living on the Edge of a Wetland

We live on the edge (and I DO mean a steep hill kinda edge that goes down for 20 feet of our property before it joins the public property) of the Thornton Creek protected wetland/stream/ waterway. The kind of area our neighbors had to hire goats to clear of brambles and ivy:

It's amazing what a thorough job they do, and steepness don't make no nevermind to them. Each night they just camp out on the hill, even in the rain - 'til they've run out of edibles. Fellow blogger Jessica of "Rose-Kim Knits" used the same goat vendor (mainly because many people who rent out goats to clear weeds want to bring out large numbers to huge lots, and this person will just bring 2 or 8 - whatever you need. You can see her adventure here if interested.

The bennies: no one behind the house - lots of lovely bird calls albeit annoyingly early in the morning. Lovely sounds of the wind blowing in the trees. However, bugs hit the seasons running when you live on the edge of land with water. Other people tell me the moths and mosquitoes aren't really out there yet - I must be imagining it. I'd invite them to come view the light on our front porch on any given night when a zillion or two of them are flying around. I can't stay out there long, even to break the boxes down and do the recycling - without getting chomped. Also, the Piliated Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers love this area. They love to chomp down (peck up?) heartily on the house. Partly to make noise and attract a mate, and also to work their way into the attic and find a new home for the hoped-for family.

After having a friend/contractor Dan fix the entire top board level around the house two years ago from damage:

Here's the kind of thing they do - just mow through the wood until they get a hole big enough to get in.




So, two years ago he replaced all the boards, put rat-and-bird-proof mesh behind all the vent holes and we were good to go......we thought.

Until last year. 9 a.m. every morning, rat-a-tat-tat over and over. Do birds have an alarm clock? Finally caught him in the act by peeking around the corner with the camera...

Friend Flicker. Do you believe the size of that hole? Then the sound of the birdie feet wandering around the attic space at night (!) which just happened to be right over our bed. Once I had waited long enough to figure out there were no Mrs. Flicker and little flickers early this Spring (cause I'm too much of a sap to disturb a family you know...), had to pick up the phone again. Daaaaannnnn! Help!

While he was out rehabbing the spot with a board and a secret discouragement board underneath, he built new back steps and did all kinds of wonderful things. I'm not holding my breath that we're done with woodpecker invaders though - they are very territorial and love to return to the scene of devastation they caused last time.

Ryan blogged about us Dye Day Dyenosaurs this week - go here to check it out. Instead of going back to the Oregon Cardigan, I've been working on a Truly Tasha shawl for Mom in a lavender Koigu and am basing it on the original Nancy Bush pattern (free, here) only changing the neckline to match the neckline shaping on Evelyn Clark's Landscape Scarf pattern (picture here) which you'll have to buy to get the techie bits on it - it's a Fibertrends pattern and the shawl version on the picture doesn't show the scarf version (included in pattern), which curves around flatteringly in the front and never falls off (original pattern picture here). May add beads and a second layer of edging. Trying to have it done by the time we go to the 10th annual Sleeping Lady Retreat that Acorn Street Yarns puts on in June in Leavenworth, Washington. The baby mystery item is temporarily back on track gauge-wise but dead in the water for now.

I'm cleaning house with the aid of Dear Friend Beryl and emotionally it's taking its toll. Years of sorting and letting go of stuff. I thought it would be easier with just one person helping me at this stage before hiring the squadron of professionals who march about, asking you to choose if it stays, gets trashed, or donated. It is a "bit" easier, but still exhausting. Good thing I've made a start though. Unfortunately it slows down the knitting. With a good DVD in my computer (or 2, or 3) I can usually get 2-4 hours knitting done at night - but it'll have to wait until David's back on Tuesday and this latest saga of clean-out is done.

One of the hardest things to get rid of conscientiously is magazines. If they are craft - no worries - some friend will take them or I can sell them off. But the husband's tastes are wide-ranging, and libraries no longer seem to want back issues. I can of course recycle them but if I fill that recycle bin up every week it'll be almost too heavy to lift up over the truck. And their holiday Starbucks card may not make up to the recycle guys in cheerfulness for our excess. I've thought of listing them by type on Craigs list to see if anyone interested in various subject matters would be interested. Any ideas?

Swan Song for Coffee

Not something I really wanted to give up, even though for about 3 months I've been all about the giving up. No wheat, no sugar, no half 'n half (argh - was that tough), no potatoes (not as hard as I thought, that one). But Coffee? Geeeze! But, it seems to irritate my bladder (sorry for the candidness of the thing) so much lately and I noticed it most when we had to stop at every single rest stop between S.F. and Seattle (remember the one-ply paper? Just doesn't cut it!). So....since I'm a huge Assam tea drinker, I'm busy NOT giving that up as hard as I can while I give up coffee. Maybe eventually I can have a cup of coffee a month as a special treat or something eventually. Maybe.

Good thing we had that Dye Day on Saturday because it's been bucketing down ever since. Now this is my idea of great weather, as I have Summer S.A.D. and can remember having it since I was about 6 years old - but, there's a lot of moaning and whining around town as if this didn't happen every May and June.

Went to the doctor for a blood draw today and had a great chat with a Filipino man in the lobby (while I waited the de rigueur 45 minutes past my appt. time). He taught me a Tagalog word for knitting. Can't find it in any Tagalog dictionary on the net so I'll "phoneticize" it for you - GahnCHEELing. Isn't that a cool word? If I had forgotten to bring my knitting in today for what was supposed to be a super-quickie 15-minute "just a blood draw" appt. I would have been fried. Knitting is such great anger-management for me (waiting and wasting time in places, listening to conversations that get me riled up, loud people on cell phones, rude people, etc. etc. etc.). DID find out I've lost 27 lbs so far. Anything over 15 would have made me happy - high expectations are the death of the long-term diet.

Got stalled on the Oregon Cardi by missing one decrease and - head not working - had to rip out one row to figure out how I did (or didn't do) what resulted. Have added a Truly Tasha shawl by Nancy Bush for mom (garter stitch city - great edging) to the INcoming projects, ripped out the mystery baby item that I had made a hash of by mixing up all the wrong colors together, restarted on ONE variegated colorway of Koigu, and am ready to charge ahead on each one.

David is off to S.F. again to start work meetings with a new client. Packing conversations..... "Where are all my socks?"
"Weren't those them on top of the last batch of clean laundry?"
"Yes, but there were only 87 pair there, I know I have more than that - where can they be? This won't last me on the trip."

I go to the computer, find the only socks on the planet he will wear - have a heart-stopping moment when it looks like they no longer make them in grey - find them, and order 87 more pair.

"I ordered you a bunch more socks."
"Oh......good. You know that polo shirt with the stain on it - well it didn't come out - it's toast now, I can't take it."

Wait 'til I've dropped him off at the airport. Go home and order 6 polo shirts in assorted non-stained colors.

The man has a hard time finding shoes he likes, or that are comfortable. Doesn't realize the world of retail only keeps styles of anything for about a month, then (other than on eBay) will never have them again. When he finds a pair he decides are great, I say (as any intelligent middle-aged woman would) buy TWO pair, get more than one color! "No, that's silly, I can always come back" (in six months, yeah, right). So he leaves town and I sneak back to the store and buy the 2nd pair, or if I hear him bemoaning his shoe fate 3 months later when he realizes his world will crumble once these shoes are gone and not to be found again - I go to eBay, start a definitive search until I can locate the exact shoe in the exact color. But now....there's a new problem since we last returned from India. He won't switch over to the 2nd pair! Him, "but these are so comfortable - I just can't give them up." Me, "Yes, that's why you BOUGHT those shoes in the first place - the 2nd pair will still be comfortable, really!" Him, "but there's still a little wear left, they don't look that bad." Me, "The stitching is starting to pull away - besides, you walked through Monsoon rains in those shoes [you'd be appalled at what floats around in Monsoon rains in a country without much indoor plumbing] and remember? You barfed on them in the Amsterdam train station when you got food poisoning and it took me all night to clean them up because you hate germs...remember that? Him "silence.....more silence."

So, it was just a typical "been married for many years but from different planetary systems" chat.

Dye Day Dinosaurs

Not sure how we came up with this name but it seems to be sticking. Now shouldn't it be Dyenosaurs? Since most of us are in our 50's, 60's and 70's with a few sneakers in the 40's category.....don't think we're fossilized yet! I'm still leaning toward Geezer Babe Dyers but got outvoted. Tons of pictures of yesterdays dye day with minimal verbiage (don't faint) from me!

The "start your engines" fuel:

The massive amounts of stuff it takes!

Some of us look just way too cool and unflustered!

Cluster dyeing - will that color come out?

Yep, okay, what's next?

What? Another picture? Go 'way already!

Pat wields the baton - look out! Mary B. is looking less and less happy at my paparazzi skills. You did tell me to blog this Mary....

Calm and soothing supervision by the venerable one:

My job is to lower everyone's blood pressure and get pats.

Oh good, it's working!

Looks like the same old watched pots never boil!

The supportive Dudes corner....

We compared Oregon Cardigan/Vest progress; Linda K on top in the Autumn colorway, Mary B in the Spring colorway below.

Evanne is doing her own unique colorway.

As is Pat - she has a stunning combination of colors. Pat often has an idea, puts it together on Stitch Painter, then prints it out and off she swatches! Go here for a picture of her developing Oregon.

I was pretty darn pleased with my silk bells colors, which started out namby pamby and got better as I added colors. Janis in Eugene lit a fire under me about pulling them apart afterward and drafting them out to knit with un-spun. Project No. 766 on the list.

Gorgeous colors and overdyes are starting to stack up!


The rain didn't seem to slow us down at all!

Sometimes the mirth was just too too.

Sometimes the exhaustion was too too too...

Evanne washing fiber at the basement sink. We must have been at that sink a hundred times that day. There is nothing to compare with having an inside sink that runs both very hot and cold water to flush dyes out of finished skeins, fill up dye pots, fill up soaking pots, wash hands, scrub tables, repeat repeat repeat. If we left Mary and David a kilowatt of energy left at the end of the day I'd be surprised.

See how Karen Jo looks kinda serious? This is where we get into the gustatory rewards for all this work.

We take our potluck duties seriously. No ten trays of cheese and crackers all the same here. A dizzying and unique number of healthy salads and Pat's famous lemon bars which we called salad on a crouton to make them blend in.

A very satisfying day - knowing you can create magic - the same kind of magic you see on the shelves at yarn stores. None of us are likely to quit buying yarn, but knowing you can create some of the beauty yourself is very affirming.

Errands as a Way of Life

You know how it is - you get back from vacation and the rounds start....no food in the house, need to get laundry done, make a bunch of new appts. for everything in the world. If you have a day job (I'm SO thankfully retired) it's even worse. Fifty-leven emails to catch up on, a big pile in the in-box and most of a day wasted until you're caught up enough to get back in sync again. It's kind of like when you were doing the double dutch jump rope game as a kid. You rock back and forth on your toes watching the rope, knowing you've got to run under and start in at the existing pace or you'll trip up and and everything will fall down around you. I'm lucky enough to have no real complaints, not having to work, but sometimes the whole errand routine seems to waste so much of the day that there is no day. Thank goodness my chilluns are dogs and don't require rides to soccer matches, band practice and the orthodontist.

One errand that was a happy errand was going to retrieve Trixie from the kennel we use on Vashon. It's called Avalon and they take wonderful care of her, right down to selecting dogs they know she can play with and won't bite their face off (she's a fear biter in spite of being a sweet little girl. She was happy to see me and to go home.

Here she is trying to re-emerge from behind the curtain after running to check that the view was as she left it. She always forgets it's pinned at the bottom so it won't gap open.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday knitting group homies had a lovely dye day today. Will blog about that tomorrow. An amazing amount of stuff was hauled to and from. At least three of us backed our cars down the driveway next to Mary B's house and offloaded stoves, dye, fiber, buckets, and a vast amount of other stuff - then had to repeat it all at the end of the day. Always seems worth it though with friends, food and the results of beautiful fiber. Some come to dye, some overdye skeins that just don't make them happy to look at, and though the results are not always predictable, they're mostly beautiful and lift the spirits.

Meanwhile, so many sad times are going on for different friends lately. One dear friend has been laid off after landing a successful job and doing very well at it. Budget cuts -ugh! A few spinning friends have recently lost their husbands to illness or are about to - devastating! And our own dear Evanne lost her darling younger dog Zala (a doberman) after a very sudden decline due to a congenital kidney problem that was a complete surprise. We'll all miss little Zala - she was a bouncy happy girl after a lot of work by Evanne and her family getting her healthy and secure in her new home. So many of us have been through it with a beloved animal companion. The hardest part seems to be coming home and they are not there, not in their favorite spots, not causing trouble, and not with us when we start our day. About the only benefit after they're gone (besides not having to pick up the poop) is knowing they are pain-free and beyond all suffering.

Have taken a little vacation from the Oregon cardi - don't want to burn out and not finish. Our Friday knitters (encouraged by Evanne) made some knitting resolutions for the year. I never did publish mine but secretly I thought that this would be the year I knit only for myself (which almost never happens) and my husband. Even though I didn't mention it out loud - suddenly the projects for others started to come at me so fast I expected to hear "INcoming!!!" and have to duck. But, when it comes down to it, I'm pretty happy to make these projects. There's something about knitting for someone you care about that makes you feel very happy. It's the "Knitted Hug" that we love to deliver. And I'm making the Oregon Cardigan for ME come swine flu or high water. There's a hilarious post over on Feral Leader Karen Campbell's blog about her overhearing a woman on her cell phone insisting that we are dealing with the "Swan Flu," not the Swine Flu. This caught on big time at Dye Day and we are now all calling it the Swan Flu. Y'all be careful out there around those swans. Remember if they sneeze, they can't do it in their sleeve as is proper - so the germs can come straight for you!