Ramblings (and an almost rumble) from the 'hood.

Ramblings first.

I went to the gym today and was horribly dismayed to find the 'I Can't Shut Up' lady was there. And then I remembered I had my new iPod Shuffle with me.

This cute little hot pink iPod which was my Valentine's Day present from Hans.

I've never owned one in my life so it took some figuring out. Instead of music, I downloaded a book (and at $21.00 I don't think I'll be doing that too often) and I love it! I ended up buying Sophie Kinsella's 'Can You Keep a Secret', and listened to it while I cleaned houses this week.

How did I ever get along without my hot pink iPod?

So when I saw old Big Mouth at the gym today, I listened to my book. It was heaven!

Remember this bag?

I use it for work (lunch and water bottle), and the gym (water bottle, padlock, and towel). However, the narrow top and roomy body cause all kinds of trouble.

Everything gets lost within its cavernous innards. If my phone rings, I'm rooting around like crazy, and half the time I can't find my keys.

And since it's winter I have to carry my working shoes with me (I can't wear snowy, icy, salt encrusted shoes in the houses I clean), and I won't stick them in a bag with my lunch so I have to carry them in a plastic bag.

Besides that, football is over and the Steelers didn't fare too well this year.

Today I decided to make a bag that will do what I need it to do.

I bought this fabric last summer and I think it's perfect for a house cleaner.

Since we're still slightly snowbound (and I've taken a kind of solemn vow to use what I have on hand before buying anything new), I dug through my stash this morning and found some denim type fabric that my mother gave me a while ago that I think will work well with this.

I cut everything out this afternoon and tomorrow I'll sew it together.





We nearly caused a rumble tonight when we went to dinner at a local bar (old steel mill working class) in our little part of the Big City and dared to ask the bartender to put the Olympics on one of their many TV's.


I had already braced myself but I still cringed when I heard the reaction of the bar patrons when women's curling suddenly appeared. Even though everyone around us knew that we liked this sport they had no problem letting us know how stupid they thought it was. But luckily some of the jeerers found a couple of the curling ladies to be attractive, and then they shut up!



I bet if the Sports Illustrated Swimming Suit Babes had been curling, all eyes would have been glued to the screens and no one would have said a word!