Famousness!

I love Mad Men.

Well, not those of the male gender who are angry.  I have had my fill of those.  And perhaps fill enough for a few others as well, if the truth be known.  And here at Chez Needles, or Casa del Iron, depending which way the wind is blowing, we...in the royal sense of we...are all about the truth.

So.

Mad Men.  And famousness!

I speak of the TV show.  Or in my case, the TiVo'd show, with somebody who plays Don Draper (yum!) and an actress named January Jones.  I think if I still had children to name, I might copy that one.  I think it has a certain snap to it.

Wiki describes the setting, the plot, and essence of the show as follows:

"Set in New York City, Mad Men begins in 1960 at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue. The show centers on Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the agency's creative director, and those in his life, in and out of the office. It also depicts the changing social mores of 1960s America."

I like it.  I like it alot.  I am all about 'changing social mores'!

Wonderful Guy thinks there isn't much action to it.

But then...then there was this episode!

(And here comes the famousness!)

Don Draper's missus (played by the lovely January Jones), for one reason or another, mostly in a decadent way to bribe the daughter to love the new baby boy, buys said daughter a gift.

This is what was the daughter of Don Draper (yum!) sees when she opens her present.

I squealed.  Yes I did.  I squealed and said, 'That's EXACTLY like my Barbie.'

And it was.  Is!

She hasn't changed a bit.

Except now she wears hand knits, and lives in Colorado, and wear shoes bought off Ebay.

See.  Me and Don Draper's lil' girl.  Two peas in a pod...

That is, until she booted her Barbie out her bedroom window in a fit of pique, or little brother jealousy, or some early onset of a 1960's neurosis that is sure to not show up until she is married with three kids and 43 and wondering what happened when life doesn't work like it was suppose to....

Spoiled little rich girl...

I had to save for my Barbie...

P.S. It's Just-A-Mere's turn tomorrow.

Taking the Fifth (of Blogtoberfest)

I had given this post some thought before Dearest Sister referenced ‘the stash closet of yore’ in her previous post. Initially, I was all darn her, she’s beat me to it. But then, taking the easy way out, I twisted my rationale to this – ‘but the idea of ‘tag team blogtoberfest (roll out the barrel…we’ll have a barrel of fun…)” is to use each other. In a good way. To spur each other on! As each other’s muse! To stimulate inspiration and thought processes!’

So here I am…copying.

When one has three teenage daughters, a good place to work is somewhere that offers free, and/or highly discounted personal care products. And for a few years in central Missouri, I worked for the old petroleum jelly manufacturer, Chesebrough-Ponds, a.k.a Unilever.

We made Q-Tips (the manufacture of which is absolutely fascinating!), cotton balls, polish remover, Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion (all the bottled varieties of VICL, pronounced vickle), and TOOTHPASTE! We made Mentadent, Pepsodent, Close-Up, and Aim – all varieties for all of North America. I worked in the QC lab, testing the raw materials. Seriously, I have seen a 55 gallon drum of petroleum jelly.

Not only did I get the unused portions of lab samples for free, there was a company store, where we could purchase all the companies products at hugely discounted prices, and if that weren’t enough, throughout the year, grab-bags were offered for even more incredible prices. Oh, those halcyon days!

In Middle Daughter’s closet, behind her clothes rack, there were deep shelves that became ‘Becky’s Booty Closet’. Product was stacked and organized in this closet in store-like fashion. Everyone could choose their favorite viscosity of lotion, preferred flavor of toothpaste, and number-one fragrance of polish remover. And by everyone, I mean extended family and old friends and visitors of all types. At this time in our lives, we lived in a rather central locale and saw some of these rather regularly. And by regularly, I mean whenever they ran out of toothpaste.

We had one bathroom at this particular house. But on the counter…at any given time? Three, maybe four varieties of dentifrice (that’s really the technical term. And I challenge you to use it in correct form in a sentence by the end of the day.) And five or six types of lotion. I still need a variety of lotion to choose from.

There were no ‘cosmetic puffs’ in our house. Nothing but real cotton! I cannot use anything but real Q-Tips. It makes a difference. Sadly, that process is no longer run at that plant, and all the ‘Q-Tip Ladies’ retired or had to find different places in the plant to go.

I had fun working there, and am still in touch with a few of my former peeps, one of whom I consider a good friend.

But, alas, I am back to buying toothpaste (oh Pepsodent, where have you gone?) and lotion (which does not include VICL!). And Wonderful Guy does not get why I have to have Q-Tips.

But I still have one little bottle of polish remover that I am still using!

My Reward

I had a week of it at work.

Not that I would want this taken wrongly.  I am very very very grateful...still...for my new old job.  I still like, still get a kick out of going there each day, still like working with the old peeps, loving the mix of the challenge and yet knowing a bit about what I am doing. I love doing science!

But this week?  It was full, and it kicked my little old rear end.

I dragged my raggedy bottom home Friday...barely, to check on the tomatoes.  A mere 3 weeks after the first ripe one, we had frost.  Yep.  Frost.  And Friday?  After two days of blowy chilly weather, it was sunny and blue skies and shirt sleeves.  Well, if those sleeves were long.

Same with today.  Which, of course, is grand for the weekend.  Better this than the other way around.

So my tomatoes?  On Thursday?  Because I was wore through, I looked at the weather on the computer and saw that it was predicted to go down to...oh...35, maybe 34.  Why, I thought to myself, those weather predictors in Denver?  They are down in Denver!  And I am tired.  And it is hard...Hard! to cover up tomatoes.  So let's play the odds.

Well, the tomatoes? They are a bit worse for the odds.  Not completely done in, and perhaps there are some more ripening to be done on the vine over the next few weeks, but there are some...um...not so green leaves.  I have to say, times like these?  I get frustrated with my mostly wonderful Colorado clime.

Anyway.  Back to my reward for working soooooo hard, and yet...successfully for the most part...this past week, and living with only three (3!) weeks of ripening tomatoes this year.

It's Friends of the Library Book Sale time!  Oh yeah.  Time to stock up on reading material for the next year.  Let's see what struck her fancy last night?  What treasures did she scarf?

In review, I see Round One brought home two Ken Follet books!  I loved the Pillars Of The Earth and whatever the second one was called.  Hopefully these two will be good reads.  For $2, worth a shot. An Amy Tan, who I always find moving, sometimes to the soul.  The Isabel Allende is an Oprah Book Club book.  Sea of Trolls is an amusing title and suppose to be 'good'.  Next to the top?  Revenge of the Middle Age Woman.  Another title that caught my eye.  For $2, one can try some that one might not plunk down $12 or $14 for!  Same with Crazy For Trying.

Like I said, Round One.  On Sunday afternoon?  Prices drop, and late in the day, $5 a bag!

(Tag, Sister Dearest...you're it!)

It’s October!

And that means blogtober-fest. (Roll out the barrel…we’ll have a barrel of fun….)

Dearest Sister and I have come up with a bit of a twist on it, twisted sisters that we are, to keep this challenge from becoming a blather-fest.

We are going to share posting, and will write every other day, she at her place, Just-A-Mere (here), then me at mine (…uh...here).

And while we are sisters, alike in background and in many ways, we do have different takes and varied styles in quite a few others.

Her writing, and doing, and craft I look forward to reading about, and am excited that she will have to….have to! post every other day…because as gawd is my witness, I am not carrying her through this month like I carried her through Sunday School when we were youngsters!

Just sayin’.

Be warned, Dearest Sister.

I really do believe "Blog-toberfest, Our Way" will be --

• A personal challenge to be met (must remember the schedule…)
• A sure treat (no matter what Dearest Sister thinks)
• Guaranteed fun along the way (Serious fun.)
• A bit of a surprise at the end (Oh, whatever could I mean?)

Making Up...

...not posting, for not knitting, for lost time!

Firstly, Liz got much better shots of Kiernan the alpaca, whose fleece I bought, when we were at Alpaca on the Rocks.  For a head shot of one of the cutest faces ever, and also of Kiernan talking to me about why I needed to make the purchase, take a peak here. We are about halfway down the post.

Secondly, I started the first Baby Surprise Jacket last night and...AND...it appears....it APPEARS! that I have done it up right...so far.  It was fun to knit with this stuff (Rowan's Cashsoft Aran), fun to knit in general, and fun to knit something that was working.  Look!  Over in the side bar...an actual progress bar!  I am so proud.

Thirdly, tomorrow is October, and Dearest Sister and I have made a bargain with each other for a shared Blogtoberfest.  I think it will be a sure treat.  Last year, in participating in the effort, I felt it turned into a blather-fest on my part.  Doing it this way will give us each something from which to springboard, to challenge us...hopefully.

More details on the morrow.