22 April 2006

THIS IS SOOOOO NEAT!!

ITS OFFICIAL!!


The SPIRIT of the SANDS, Palm Springs High School Band and Visual Corps. is THE FIRST American Band to be selected To Play at the 2007

www.psband.org

BEIJING OLYMPIC MUSIC FESTIVAL!!!!!!

the youngest is going to china!! Oh MY!!!

THis band director does AMAZING things with and for the Kids (how many hs bands do you know get to perform at DISNEYLAND on a regular basis! or is the local city's official band?? OR play in the SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE or TIVLOLI GARDENS, Denmark??

ESPECIALLY as they do it on a budget from the school district of $00000000!!!!!



every dime is raised by the band boosters and the families of the kids.



So From Now on i will also be including band performance info here.
this weekend there is a Bookfest with a LOT of authors here in town selling and chatting up their books and activities. I think i will go and see some favorite authors :o) and also pass out invitations that i have made on my own to as many as i can to invite them to our

Palm SPrings Youth Music Festival & 19th Annual Invitational Field Show Tournament. Its offically from the 2-9th of December in downtown Palm Springs.
SO IF YOUR family is in ANY way involved with your local high school LET THEM know about our tournament. We have an internationally adjudicated program and LOTS Of FUN!!!

17 April 2006

Of Finland & Sweden:
I see that I have had a visitor from both these countries. How cool is THAT!! I loved visiting both of them. We went ot Stockholm then rode a train for several hours to a friends home (i dont remember where exactly but it was GREEN~! too too wonderful. there was a forest right across from their house..

Our friends in Finland were in the town/city of Espoo (also forested). Lordy that was a beautiful place. I miss those friends. we have lost touch with them and i dont even know if they are still there. Keith & Leah if you come across this, my dh worked with you in Tabuk!

i know, I know, a LONG SHOt that anyone i know would actually see this but ya never know! LOL!!

I really enjoyed All of scandanavia - is a Stunning part of the world. would love to go back someday.

15 April 2006

Where Falcons & Desert Hawks Fly http://kkmcdeserthawk.blogspot.com/ HAs a GREAT shot of a Camel in the desert. Its funny the odd little things you miss about a place. We lived in kingdom for over 4 yrs and those loud smelly unfriendly oddly shaped and equally oddly beautiful creatures are one of them.. strange but there it is....
Discovered A really neat blog Called Infinite Zoom: A Fractal Gallary= while i have NO idea what a Fractal is i DO know when something is really pretty and these images really ARE!!
http://infinitezoom.com/index.htm

14 April 2006

Probably the ONLY political thing i will ever put here: Came across a very interesting blog. It has a very thought provoking commentary on Censorship of Blogging - http://internetfreedomforall.blogspot.com/

I have always been very strongly opposed to censoreship - we ALL have the right to CHOOSE what we read/look at= if ya dont like it dont LOOK! Censorship smacks of Fanaticism. there is a quote "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis" when you read and watch the news this very thing seems to be happening all over the US on a daily basis.

The other thing I have been noticing recently is a rather frightening scenario playing out. Here in california there is this catch 22 happening in our school systems. The "state" claims many of our schools are failing (even as they keep taking away their money to function) and if the schools dont PASS certain testings then the "state" will basically take over the running of said schools- a thing that is pretty much a given as the state is removing the districts money & they are failing from lack of resources. an example of WHAT really WORRIES me is that It is this SAME process that has happened in some of the Sacramento School Districts where they have REMOVED the Civil war from their curriculum altogether (apparently that bit of history isnt considered IMPORTANT!@) ---am i the only person to see the parallel to the state controlled school curriculum programming/censorship in pre-WWII germany??
anyway thats my one political "thing" for the day

10 April 2006




It Takes a Village.....
i always like that phrase - even fair sized towns can be like one. I attended a middle school band meeting one night & had to laugh. Of the dozen people there i knew one from one job, another from my second job, 1 from the high school band boosters and 2 from girl scouts, ..... as it turned out there was only two there i ONLY knew from THAt school!
what brought that to mind was coming across a blog showing the artwork the lady was doing for her 'Boston Cow". these types of artwork are becoming rather popular. My favorite is still the PandaMania project http://pandamaniadc.org/ But we have one here in town too... (tho reno also has the same critter for their subject i discovered) we have BIG HORN sheep. the art work is quite amazing. http://www.pathofthebighorn.com/


One of the rams was done by a fellow scout leader and band mom and hers is residing in a local library. What the photo does not show Is the huge amount of beadwork that was done on it. in the photo it simply looks like painted bands but some of the bands are actually Thousands of beads glued in place. our friend said if she had had ANY idea how HARD that was she would have done something different. (apparently she had to hold the beads in place as they dried or they would fall off) but the end result is very Bright and eyecatching. is fun

09 April 2006

Geee DUH!!!
just got two answers on the passap group about my needle issue on the Vario. THey both told me a page number to check! DUH~!~! last page & guess who didnt see it!!
sheeeeeshhh! - as soon as i saw it Bingo= answered and fixed the problem~!
talk about feeling NOT brilliant..
is still a bit odd to work with but so far is MUCH better to work with than the bond. will play with more.....

went and frogged the sock, and am recasting on. I AM going to figure this out!LOL!~!

Spent the day doing Girl Scout Stuff with dd#2 and got to visit with a dear friend i havent seen in much too long.. got a chance to play catch-up.. :o)
so all in all a good day!

07 April 2006

Holiday & knitting Stuff
School's out for a week and thought we would be able to go to az for a couple of days.. sigh... looks like its not to be. dd#2 has 2 girl scout activities over the weekend and dh has to be on call on wednesday... oh well we CAN kick back and relax for a change :o)

OTN: have started a couple of projects. not sure how they are going to go tho... I took down the Bond ISM - i really dont think i like it. its very 'plastic-y' (is that a word?) and drops stitches like all hades. very frustrating when i know what it "should" be doing.. i dont have much patience anymore i guess.

am of two minds on loaning it to a friend to learn on- on one hand it IS small and easy to handle and easy to manuver --on the other it doesnt have the kind of quality my ancient knitking (WHICH I MISS!) had- i dont want to turn her off of machine knitting - most likely i will start her with it with explanations on WHy i do/dont like this machine.. she can practice techniques and she is MUCH more patient than i am.

so i set up the Vario..... not tooo sure about it yet.. has a really nice bed and once cleaned the action should be nice and smooth but is the first knitting machine i have EVER used that did not have a yarn feed... not to sure i like that.
also the 'instruction' book LACKS a great deal of INSTRUCTION!! is mostly a picture book- errrrggghhhh
(ie: i need to replace a needle and the only info in book is a photo of a needle and essentially stating 'this is a needle" and not DIDDLY else..... sheeesh)

oh well i joined a Passap yahoo group and MAY find out some good stuff on the little beastie. I really want to find /use a nice basic machine for larger scale work (i am a SLOW hand knitter) and need/want to make a number of petticoats and undersleeves for our reenacting group.

am still working on the simple shawl- is GREAT mindless knitting. soft and flooofy~! i love the look of it. someday it will even be finished!! LOL!!
i cast on a small scarf to try a feather and fan lace motif.. am NOT good at mantaining a pattern sequence! but will try a few rows a day and see what happens. i picked a simple one and the yarn is YUMMY

i started a sock.... (i say this somewhat laughingly) and am ready to frog it already.... tho i DO think i have figured out the porcupine thing... and i kinda like the round and round and round...... BUT the ribbing and i are having ISSUES! :o(
like i said i have sequencing problems -i keep forgetting if ive done knit or purl and i lose count. then the next round i have NO idea which one i should be doing. (i was TRYING k2-p2) ergggg.

i do really like the little rosewood dpns i have - they are sweet to work with. i will try again, i think this time a k1-p1 MAY work better...
well i think i will go knit a row or two and put my feet up- my ankles are swelling to beat the band again...

02 April 2006

am a bit computer challenged, sigh.... trying to improve look of blog and ERASED a bunch of links, :0(
now i have to refind them errrgghhh!



not the best picture of my eldest in her NEw BALL GOWN but she looked AMAZING!@! the dress is a DARK purple and black

Letha is 5'2 she is petite but very grown up (ok, she's 20. so "thinks" she IS grown up!LOL!)


One of my FAVORITE pictures of my youngest. Sarah is such a lovely girl who doesnt even think shes pretty! she's in a period dress (186o) for her age (13 when this was taken) an she is an amazing young lady. already 5'6!!! (yikes) of course i am not the LEAST bit biased about my girls ! LOL!!

IS an AMAZING house and not that far from us. (its high desert- we are low desert) ITS A STRAWBALE house!! supposedly the first Barrel Vault strawbale house ever built and its here in Josua Tree! -i would like to try and find it and see it in person- i LOVE this house! the possiblities are boundless!


I love the Style of this Jacket- i am trying to figure out how to duplicate it. am not so good at this tho. and maybe i could use it for an 1860's bodice with pagoda sleeves, would love to make it in Navy Blue.