Where's a Nice Lamb When You Need One?

If it's true about March that "in like a lion, out like a lamb", then the opposite is also true. And this March, which started off as nice and soft as a newborn merino lamb, is ending up like a whole pride of lions. Hungry and angry lions at that.

Beginning of March

End of March (ignore the fact the sun is out in this picture)

Days like today are the ones that make me ask myself, "What am I doing here in this place?". Precipitati0n has been coming down all day. Lots of it, in the form of rain, freezing rain and sleet. The temperature is stuck right at 32 degrees, so the rain portion of this mess is icing over. I can see some snow starting to mix in, but it's melting as soon as it hits the ground and then it'll probably turn to ice.

Where was this stuff during the winter?

The birds and the pine tree are not happy about this, either.

I'm feeling very frustrated with Mother Nature right now, because this is the third year in a row we're having one of these nasty icy storms just as the trees and shrubs are starting to bud. I know the flowers that have started blooming and the ones that are ready to bloom in the next few days are toast. I have my fingers crossed that my yellow "Butterflies" magnolia buds, which just barely started coloring up this week, will survive because the buds are still wearing their little fuzzy coverings.

It could be worse, of course. Up until I went to bed last night, the blizzard that has slammed western Kansas, leaving a record 28" (!!!) by Wichita, was headed straight for us. Our part of town was going to get the worst, anywhere from 8-12". So I guess this is better - it doesn't seem bad enough to knock out the power (fingers crossed).

It's a great day for knitting, at least. I have finally finished making all of the squares for the baby blankie. They are all washed, blocked and ready to be joined together. I am not a fan of sewing squares together. Not only is the back and forth tedious, and all of the loose ends annoying, but I think the sewn stitches look very unattractive. So I am going to crochet the joins instead, which will end up finishing it off very nicely. I'm going to sit and catch up on the numerous tv shows I have recorded while working on the blankie. I'd like to have it finished and ready to go by next weekend. Here it is, laid out and ready to be joined:



And when I get tired of squares, I will alternate working on the Montego Bay scarf I am making for myself out of the merino/sea cell yarn I bought in San Diego. It's finally long enough to where I can see how it will drape, and it's going to be lovely.

I hope that you are all having a lovely weekend, whether your end of March is a lion or a lamb!

Mix Makers Swap, Part 2

Once again, I have been wonderfully spoiled by Caroline. It is amazing how she picks out things that I would get for myself if I had seen it first. She must be psychic or something.


The mix she put together this time is themed "Singer/Songwriter Mix" and has a great group of songs from such songwriter artists as Ani DeFranco, Ray LeMontagne, Jeff Buckley, Turin Brakes and, my favorite of the mix, Dashboard Confessional. While I've heard of, or have a few songs from some of the singers, every song on the cd is new to me, which is so much fun! I just love finding out about new music! The majority of the songs are mellow and it seems like the perfect cd to listen to on a lazy Sunday afternoon, drinking tea and knitting.

She also sent a big bag of M&M's in pretty springtime colors, a pack of those thingies that hold needles together (thanks, Caroline, I didn't have any and was resorting to using rubberbands), an adorable and extremely useful little lunchbox type box that contained some very pretty fish stitch markers that she made. The yarn she sent is some crushingly soft baby alpaca in a dreamy fuschia color - perfect for an early spring hat - and the pattern for the amazing Koolhaas hat that I had admired many times on Ravelry but never thought I could make something this beautiful. I still don't think I can make something this beautiful, but I'm going to give it a try because I love this hat!

Here's some yarn and stitchmarker pron for your viewing pleasure:


There was one more piece to the package that is not pictured, but is probably my favorite part of all. Caroline, a fellow animal lover & parent, made a donation in my name to the ASPCA. How awesome is that? Helping homeless animals is one of my favorite things in the whole world, which makes this part of the package priceless!

So, Caroline, thanks you most sincerely for another fantastic swap. And may the swap goddesses bring you an equally wonderful package this time around!

By the way, I found out that Caroline is not completely blogless. She shares one with her husband. Please go by and visit and check out her adorable fur-kids, Fenway and Cat.

DoT: Sure Sign of Spring

Although tomorrow is the first official day of spring, Chloe and Abbie decided that it should unofficially start today. As evidence, here are their usual winter napping spots - perfect for basking in the warm sun:

No dogs here....

...or here...

...not here either...

Today was beautiful with balmy temps and a sunny sky. That means the door to the porch stays open all day, letting the girls come and go as they please. Who wants to stay inside on a day like this?

Well, that's exactly what I had to do today. I caught an upper respiratory bug that Mr. C brought back from our trip to San Diego. I've been coughing and congested for over a week now. After mostly ignoring it, I finally had to give in to it when I completely lost my voice yesterday. Nothing at all is coming out, not even a croak. We will not pay any attention to Mr. Criquette's snarky jokes about peace and quiet.

I figured I could at least take the opportunity to do some overdue chores around the house, but moving around just brought on more fits of coughing. So all I could do was to hang out in front of the TV and continue knitting for the A4A baby blankie I am still working on. Since I haven't recovered virtually any ability to speak at this point in the evening, I will probably have to cancel my patients for tomorrow, too. Since other than the coughing and laryngitis I feel okay, I feel really guilty about staying home, but I can't do therapy without talking and miming is out of the question! Oh well, as long as I stay busy with my knitting for Afghan orphans, I'm still being productive, right?

Another sure sign of spring is when Abbie starts the compulsive chewing on herself. This year, it's her hind leg. The only way to stop her, and to keep her from licking off the medicine, is to put her into The Cone of Shame. I'd pity her, but it doesn't look like it's keeping her from enjoying a gorgeous spring day!

Speaking of beagles, someone sent me this personality quiz to take. Usually, I score as a Labrador. I answered the way I typically do on these things, but this time, it seems like I am a beagle. Except, I am a beagle who does not chew holes in her leg. No Cone of Shame for me, no sir!

You are good natured. You enjoy spending time with people and animals. You have a wild, independent streak. If you're left to your own devices, you get in trouble. You love to eat and enjoy food of all kinds. If you don't get enough physical activity, you tend to have a weight problem. You are very stubborn. You don't like authority, and you tend to do your own thing no matter what.

What Breed of Dog Are You?

Swapping Around the World (and Actual Knitting Content!)

Last fall, I signed up for what looked like an interesting little swap on Ravelry - the Mix Makers Swap, where we create music mixes and swap them along with some yarn and other goodies. The first round ended up being a lot of fun and so I signed up for the second round. And am I ever glad that I did.

I am fortunate to have been paired up with blogless Caroline (her rav id is 'ameristralian'). We have some important things in common, especially our love of knitting hats, scarves and other simple diversions (although she is by far a more talented knitter than I), as well as our love of similar kinds of music. And, while I am not as passionate about all things Aussie as she is, I have had a lifelong fascination with the country, even going so far as badgering my parents about moving our entire family there during a particularly difficult 7th grade school year. I had seen the movie "The Sundowners", after which I developed a brief, but intense desire to become part of a sheep ranching family. During my graduate school years, I was part of a collaborative research project with a group of delightful Aussies down under in New South Wales, when I again entertained the notion to move there.

But I digress from the more important task of flashing my great first package from Caroline. She must be psychic, because I could not have done a better job of putting together my own package. Even though I have never said this in response to a swap questionnaire, I love the color grey and have numerous items of grey clothing and accessories. So I was delighted to get 2 skeins of Paton's Shetland Chunky in a beautiful shade of charcoal grey and a pattern for the Bella mittens. I have seen these on ravelry and lusted after them, except they looked way too difficult to consider. Caroline also included some cable needles and a very sweet note encouraging me to take the plunge into the wild world of cable knitting. She assured me it's not hard, so I think I'll take the plunge soon.


There was also a GREAT mix of world music, of which I loved every single song! And quite possibly the very best treats I've ever received in a swap - silky, creamy milk chocolate covered cookies and a slab of chocolate covered popcorn. I haven't tried the cookies yet, but I am not ashamed to tell you that after one taste of the popcorn, I put it away until Mr. C went out of town this week so that I don't have to share it with him. Judge me if you want to, but if you could only taste this crack-in-a-cellophane-wrapper, you'd do the same thing too.

Finally, look at these gorgeous stitch markers (I am guessing she made them!). They came in this cute little bag and I just love them. In fact, I loved everything, can you tell? Thanks so much Caroline - you're the best!!!

In case you haven't noticed, I have been very remiss in my blogging. Work, not enough time in a day, blahblahblah. I have been knitting furiously every day, however, trying to get as many wooly items made as I can before the shipping deadline for Afghans 4 Afghans. I made two hats, but I think they're too big for this shipment (they need items for young children and infants) so these may need to wait until another time. The green one was knit in Lamb's Pride Bulky and still needs a pompom. The variegated one is Galway chunky yarn and is my favorite. I crocheted 3 strips of single crochet for the corkscrew top and stitched them together in the middle, then ran the 2 long threads down in the top center of the hat, tied it off and wove the ends in. Faster than icord!



Here are some of the squares for the blankie. I am mixing knit and crochet, which should give an interesting texture. I am using a lot of leftovers from my stash and am amazed at how well the colors go together considering I didn't buy the original yarns to go together.

We had a very sweet, but uneventful Valentine's weekend here at the little house on the prairie. Criquette had her fill of flowers and candy and romantic movies and she hopes you all had likewise.



I am getting ready to go to San Diego to join up with Mr. C who is already there on business. I've never been there and have already gotten lots of very useful advice from the SD Knitters group on ravelry. I have made plans to visit at least one yarn shop and of course, the zoo. I'll be back with a full report. Hope you're all staying warm and dry!

A Scare, A Blankie and An Excellent New Swap

This past week, it has been Abbie's turn to give us quite a scare. It all started when Mr. C, who is normally the perfect life-partner, made a Very Bad Mistake. He has the bad habit of not closing drawers, cabinets and closet doors after he has opened them. It irks me to no end, but since he actually enables my yarn addiction, I can usually overlook it. Earlier this week, he made some pork babyback ribs, of which I am not a fan. Even worse, he didn't close the sliding drawer that contains our garbage can after he disposed of the bones. Then he left to run an errand and I wasn't home either. These are the times Abbie often gets herself in trouble if she is left to run loose in the house, usually by snacking from the kitty box or chewing up something of mine.

This time, however, her excellent beagle nose led her straight to the open garbage can. When Mr. C got home, he found her chewing on one of the bones. He found the remains of 2 others. And I mean chewed. Into little needle-sharp shards of bone. And, being a typical man, he under-reacted and did nothing about it, not even calling me, because "she was acting fine.". I didn't get home until about 3 hours later. Of course, I freaked out. Then I went to trusty Google and called up some websites that offered advice to other idiots who had not protected their dogs from pork bones.

What I read freaked me out even more. If she didn't end up with a blockage, she could end up with a pierced or ruptured bowel, leading to peritonitis and a slow, agonizing death. Cooked chicken bones can do the same thing. Several people recommended feeding the dog lots of bread, to help the bones pass through their bowels more safely. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I made Abbie a "bread pudding" with torn up chunks of bread, a jar of lamb babyfood, 2 giant spoonfuls of Greek yogurt, 2 giant spoonfuls of pumpkin and sprinkled on a bit of garlic powder (good for digestion)and she scarfed half of it down. I gave her the rest about an hour later. Our vet told us what to watch out for and bring her in if she was exhibiting problems.

She seemed fine that evening and the next morning, passed a stool that contained a lot of bone fragments. She was not exhibiting any of the symptoms of possible problems, including dry coughing, unsuccessful attempts to throw up, pain in the abdominal area, straining to poop and passing blood (I am only giving yucky details in case any of you ever have a similar problem). By the second day, she had thrown up about a handful of very sharp bone shards, and got us up several times during that night to go out. She started having normal BM's after that and we are hoping we are out of the woods and that there isn't trouble brewing. I really think the bread pudding idea helped enormously, and we are still giving her some yogurt every day.

So I kept her close to me all week when I got home from work, and it is amazing how fast the time passes (and nothing gets accomplished)when I am hanging out with my fur-babies.

But I did manage to get quite a bit of knitting done. I even (gasp) picked up the crochet hook, which I had shunned since I began knitting 3 years ago. The spring campaign for Afghans for Afghans has been announced and they need hats, mittens, socks and blankets for infants and toddlers. I have a couple of wool baby hats I had already made and thought I'd make one or two more as well as knit a blanket. I remembered how much I liked the patchwork blankets we made from squares for the Greensburg, KS project and thought it would be fun, as well as a great stashbuster to make one of the for the campaign. So I knit a few squares and decided to crochet one for the center. After I made the crocheted square, I realized how much faster I can crochet than knit and decided to crochet some more to scatter around in the blanket.

I figured I'll need 40 or 48 squares to make the requested size, and I have finished 13 so far, in a little over one week. Abbie-nursing has made me very productive. I can't wait to see it come together. I have until at least sometime in March to finish and at this rate, I should be able to do another hat and maybe some mittens.

Here's the hat I am working on - I have to check the size as it may be bigger than toddler size.



And here are some of the squares:


And because of Abbie's little mishap this week, I have not been able to blog, which means I haven't been able to tell you that the second edition of the Mix Makers Swap is about to begin and signups are still going until midnight tonight. You can find out more by going to Ravelry groups and looking up Mix Makers Swap. The first round was a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to this next go-round. Of course there's yarn involved, but my favorite part is getting to burn and receive cd's full of music I haven't discovered before. I have a huge music library, but there's always room for more! So if you're looking for a very pleasant little diversion to lift you out of the winter blahs, this could do the trick! And if you're late, go over there anyway and ask Jen, the wonderful moderator, if you can squeeze in. And blame it on me, or rather, blame it on Mr. C.

We are supposed to emerge from our deep-freeze conditions tomorrow - sunny and high in the 60's. I will be outside, soaking up the sun and warmth. Hope it's coming your way soon!

Whiskers on Wednesday: Easily Amused

I am lucky to be owned by two kitties who are not only adorable, but are easily amused. They enjoy a wide variety of hobbies, such as...

...garden gazing...

...jigsaw assembling...

...birdie catching...

...paper romping...

...salsa dancing...

...and, of course, yarn wrestling.

But even the most fun-loving kitties get bored with their amusements and wish for a new entertainment. And I think I've found just the thing. Don't you think they'll just love their new BFF?

History In the Making

How awe-inspiring to be a small part of history being made.




Words cannot explain the emotions I am feeling today as I have watched our new president take office to become our leader. I am so thankful that, finally, our healing as a nation can begin. I am proud that we Americans have finally had the courage to look beyond race and political parties in order to exercise our voice for change. I am filled with joyful optimism that, although not easy, our new journey is bringing us to a new kind of prosperity and peace, truly "one nation, under God". I am so happy to be here, at this time and place in history. God bless America and especially, God bless President Barack Obama.

Whiskers On Wednesday (On Saturday): Today the Tabletop, Tomorrow the Universe

Everyone who lives under our roof knows that Ms. Criquette is The Boss. Very few events escape her notice, and she usually needs to supervise it all very closely. So when I sat down at the table recently to organize my schedule, she immediately bee-lined it over to see what I was up to. Deciding she needed to get a better look, she began sit and stare and to harass me until I finally gave in and let her up on my lap. She knows that we can't resist "The Look".

She started off with all 4 paws on my lap. However, that wouldn't do. Within 30 seconds on my lap, she began to sidle her way onto the table, inch by inch, in order to get a closer look at what I was doing, just like she does every other time.

First her left paw, and then the right one. It starts with just the tips of her toes, and then the full paw. Before you know it, she's slid a shoulder onto the table. It's done so smoothly, you don't even realize she's moved.


So then she's reading what you've written and, if she approves, leaves several big splotchs of drool. For this reason, I've learned to use permanant ink. But it doesn't stop there.

A little wiggle, a tiny stretch and she has half her body up there. It's amazing how big and heavy she gets when she doesn't want to be moved.

This last was taken just before the final breach of the table, at which point she had created a puddle of saliva all over my list. As you can see, she had gotten me to abandon my writing and was going in for the final victory of laying fully on top of my work so that it could not be read, which would leave me with nothing else to do except give her lots of pets and scratchies for the rest of the evening.

It takes a brilliant mind to come up with a plan like that. Now you see why we're all just pawns in her quest to take over the house, and then the world.

FO's/Non-Knitted

Christmas 2008 was one of the best I've enjoyed with my family in a long time. Everything just came together to make it perfect. I'm really happy because my idea of giving handmade gifts not only didn't backfire, but got an enthusiastic response from everyone.

One of the easiest gifts to make was the infused cranberry vodka. Not only was this really fun, but it got a very good response from the recipients.




Fortunately, I had about a third of a bottle leftover and got to keep some for myself. Let's just say that it blends so well with cranberry juice and lime that a person could perhaps drink a bit too much before realizing how much they had actually drunk. Ahem. Thank goodness I had the sense to finish preparing the brunch for Mr. C's family celebration before hitting the juice.

The other gift from my kitchen whipped up pretty quickly. It was the brown sugar scrub recipe that I found on Deep-Fried Kudzu. I used Ginger's idea for the packaging as well. We have a really neat shop where I got to concoct my own essential oil fragrance. I blended together some chai, some chocolate and a hint of peppermint for a fragrance I named "Chocolate Chai". It smells so delicious that I wanted to gnaw my arm off after I used some of the scrub on my hands.

Martha, eat your heart out!

The little jars were so cute and I couldn't believe my luck when I found these adorable gift bags in the $1 bins at Target that perfectly matched the lids! These went over very well, also.


Then I dusted off my beading supplies and made some angel necklaces for my sister and her daughter, and a pretty pink pearl bracelet for another niece.

And I made ornaments for everyone. The young ones got some candy canes, made from pony beads strung onto a piece of pipe cleaner.


And I discovered a use for the origami cranes I like to make. I decided to add some beads and turn them into "peace crane" ornaments. Everyone really seemed to like theirs.

There have been some suggestions that I make more of these and offer them for sale. I'd love to do that, but it will have to wait until I can cut back on my hours at work.

I also made 4 blanket-sized snuggles for the younger nieces and nephews. They were a very big hit, especially with the teenaged nephew, which was a complete surprise because ...well, he's a teenage boy. He's too cool for school. But not only did he love his snuggle, but was wrapped in it when I went to visit a few days later. I think the older ones were a bit disappointed that they didn't get one, so they may each have to have their own next year.

And finally, these were not technically a Christmas gift. I made them for my Music Mix Swap partner who owns 4 rescued bassets. I had to show you, because they turned out to be so adorable. I wish I could get more of these beads, but I got the last ones.


It was so gratifying to see how happy everyone was with their handmade gifts. I was really surprised by their responses. I still have some promised knitted gifts for my beautiful nieces. One is finished and just needs blocking. One is finished and just needs a trimmed edge and some blocking. I will show pictures when they're ready to go. The other two have yet to be cast on. Let's hope that I get them completed before Christmas of 2009.

New Orleans Trip

Since I'm a New Orleans native, when I go back to visit, I rarely do the tourist thing because I'd rather spend as much time as I can with family and friends, just hanging out and being part of their day-to-day lives for a while. That means I rarely have pictures that would be of any interest to anyone outside of my family, which makes for a boring post about my trip to New Orleans.

So this time I took a few extra shots as I was driving around (my driving while taking pictures skills are improving!). I took these on the day I went downtown to pick up my adorable niece from her rather glamorous and exciting job at one of the big hotels. I-10 runs from the 'burbs into town and that's where I took pictures of 2 tourist attractions.


This is one of the "cities of the dead" that New Orleans is famous for. all of the white things you see are thousands of above ground tombs. This is just a tiny portion of one of the larger cemetaries, which covers several city blocks.

This is the Superdome and the new arena where I believe they play basketball and arena football. I can't imagine what kind of crack the architect was smoking when he or she decided that the arena should look like a gigantic Andes mint with the chocolate sucked off. It's like they had a contest to see which professional sports complex would win the "Fugliest Building" contest.


Here's part of the city skyline. The vast majority of commerce for the city is the tourist industry these days and most of the skyscrapers these days are hotels, not office buildings.

Canal Street streetcar line

Then I was on Canal Street, in the heart of downtown. Canal Street is the original outdoor shopping mall in New Orleans. I remember many wonderful outings to Canal Street with my mother and grandmothers as a child, before the malls had been built in the 'burbs. Everyone dressed in their Sunday best clothes to go shopping. We'd park in the French Quarter, have lunch at a wonderful resturant, like Acme Oyster House or Tony's and then go shop till we dropped. Canal Street was always so beautifully dressed up for Christmas. Because the lighting was lousy, you can't really see it, but all of the light poles and palm trees have garlands and lights. It brought back so many cherished memories.


Most of the big department stores with their magical window displays and luminous light displays are gone now, but it made me laugh out loud to see that Blue Dog is rockin' the window display of this hotel.

In New Orleans, the palms take the place of evergreens so they have to be decorated as well. There were lights and big snowflakes in all of them. I thought they were so cute!

One of my favorite places to hang out in the city is Magazine Street. It's several miles of unique shopping, bohemian neighborhoods brushing shoulders with exquisite mansions, great places to eat and fascinating people to watch. My niece took me to one of her favorite spots, Sucre, a mecca of eye candy which has beautiful cupcakes and to-die-for gelato.

It's also home to the Garden District Needlework knitting shop. This was my first visit there and it was quite an experience. The owner has done nothing to artificially enhance the shop's decor (which is in an old building that has the original exposed brick walls, rafters, floors, etc.). The place is charmingly shabby and overall has a very funky feel to it. It's authentically New Orleans. I was surprised that they carried as much wool as they did (I'd have guessed they'd have more cotton, linen, silk and bamboo) and they had an over-abundance of synthetic and novelty yarns (I am pausing to shudder as I write this). Their inventory was low, since it was right after the holidays, and I was starting to worry that I wouldn't be able to do my part to boost the local economy.


But there was a room packed full of sale items that were all 50% off, so I picked up some lonely single balls of Mission Falls 1812 merino yarn, Noro Kureyon (in the exact colorway I needed to match in order to make a project for my North Carolina niece) and 2 pairs of Lantern Moons, which I have been dying to try. They must have had at least 50 pairs each in only 4 sizes: 7, 9, 13 and 15. Whoever did the buying on that order must have been smoking from the same crack pipe as the arena architect. But I shouldn't complain. I've started a project with the 9's and I can totally understand the degree of needle-worship Lantern Moon inspires. I adore those sharp little points and the silky-smooth glide. Now I want more!more!more! But unless I run into another sale, these will be it for a while.

Speaking of knitting, my 11 1/2 year old niece asked me to teach her to crochet, which delighted me no end. I learned to crochet from my favorite grandmother and think of her often when I'm doing needlework. Tragically, I realized that since my niece is left-handed, and I am not, that I was just confusing the poor girl. So I found her an instructional video on YouTube to show her how instead. I'll have to send her some luscious yarn and some hooks and then maybe she'll think of me when she crochets in the future.

One of the coolest comments I heard during the trip came from my 16 year old nephew, as I was trying to teach my niece to crochet left-handed (before we gave up). He said "V, just don't start knitting at parties like all of the high school girls do, ok?" My teeth about fell out of my head...I asked him to tell me more. Apparently knitting is a very popular activity with a large number of the junior and senior high school girls in their little corner of New Orleans suburbia, so much so that they bring their knitting with them everywhere, even to parties! Now these are young women who have their heads on straight, if you ask me. There is hope for the future! If only knitting would have been this hot when I was in high school and college....I wouldn't have gotten into nearly as much trouble, and would no doubt have had much more fun!

On a different day, Mr. C and I drove across Lake Ponchartrain via the twinspan bridges on the eastern edge of New Orleans. New Orleans East was a thriving and rapidly expanding community before katrina struck. There were very upscale neighborhoods, miles of apartments and condos, numerous old fishing villages and modern waterfront communities covering what used to be marshes and wetlands. It was virtually destroyed and wiped out. The media didn't give any coverage to this part of town after the hurricane, so when we drove through on this trip, we were astonished at the destruction, as well as the overall lack of rebuilding. It's creepy, like you're driving through a modern day ghost town.

Shopping centers, medical offices, schools, libraries and even the hospital (seen in the background) all remain deserted.


Apartment buildings and homes have been deserted. It's a city of ruins.

The amusement park, only a few years old when Katrina struck, now in ruins. It would be a great site to film a post-apocalypse movie.

So my poor, beautiful and beaten-up city is still here, but struggling. The people who have stayed are like pioneers - they're tough, determined and are not going to give up. When you read the history of the city, it's a testimonial to the staying power of it's people that there have been plagues, fires, wars, and hurricanes that have destroyed large parts of the city over the years, but the people stay and rebuild and don't give up. And after all the hard work, it's time to have a good party. Food, music, family and friends, all together, celebrating the joy of getting through the day and being alive. It's the spirit of New Orleans. It is unique and it is what makes people fall in love with the place. I am proud to come from such strong people and I am reminded of that every time I go back home.