A House On Top Of A Volcano

It's not every day you run into a UFO, no matter what you can live in, and certainly never one's mind firmly dropped on a volcano-er, volcanic cinder cone, to be precise. However, lo 'and behold this curious desert located between Las Vegas and Los Angeles in Newberry Springs, California, originally commissioned by aircraft mechanical genius Vard Wallace a personal retreat, the house was designed by the prolific and versatile south California architect Harold Bissner, Jr. and was completed in 1968. The inspiration? San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear plant in north San Diego County.

The property is now owned by local semi-celebrity Huell Howser, who has hosted gold in California, a travel program on television station KCET in Los Angeles in the last 20 years. Howser list of the property in September 2009, at which the curb was described as a "secret hideout where they see their dastardly plans are displayed on flat screens and cluck your servants."

Still present in the market for their initial ask of $750K, a two bedroom, two bathrooms main house with a dome formed by concrete beams and bowed to the ground and glass walls, inside, a well keeps things in conversation around a fireplace. There is also a guest house with one room, a lake, 60 acres of land without blemish, a three-car garage, a viewing terrace on the top of the dome (360-degree views degree views of the desert) and, of course, the best part: broker babble that references a "stark, strong almost lunar landscape." Fun times! Anyway, although it's had zero luck selling—with nary a price chops, either—over the last two years, Howser's clearly holding out for that one special architecture geek who wants a serious story to tell. Alternatively, perhaps just some rich kid who wants to live in a spaceship.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas…

Ev'rywhere you go;   

Take a look in the five-and-ten, glistening once again   

With candy canes and silver lanes aglow…   

And so begins my love hate relationship with the Christmas season. Understand, I’m not a Grinch by any means. There are some things I absolutely love about Christmas. But at the same time, some things just make me crazy!

I love the music. I start listening to Christmas music right after Thanksgiving. I have satellite radio and they dedicate several channels to solid Christmas music. I put it on the autotune selections and I scroll through all my favorites. When I taught school my room was full of computers. I had all kinds of Christmas CDs, some good, some not so good. I would put them in and play them in the background during class when school started back after Thanksgiving until the Christmas break. At first some of the kids would resist. They had some silly idea I was trying to torture them! But after a day or two even the most resistant would be humming along.

I like the lights. There’s a park on the south side of Odessa that sets up elaborate light displays. I come home that way every day. I was a bit late the other day and it was dark. I could see the lights at the intersection where I turn. So I didn’t turn. I went straight and I waited in line and drove through the park. I had a good time! It would have been more fun had I had company but when my oldest son gets home I know he and I will go again. We don’t put up lights at our house. Not outside lights anyway. We did once and I really don’t know why we didn’t ever again. We live outside town so there isn’t any peer pressure from the neighbors to do much outside decorating. It’s a good thing. Nobody has the time now. Instead, I enjoy the generosity of others who are so generous with their lights. And I’m thankful they continue to go to the trouble.

Lights at the park

I love the inside decorations. When I pull out the red and green afghans and blankets and pillows and put them on the chairs I get a cozy feeling. I like spreading the knick knacks throughout the house. I like the smell of the spicy candles and the light of their flickering flames. I like the many trinkets that have amassed through the years and take pleasure in the memories as I unwrap each one and place it on the tree. I like the twinkling lights. I don’t care if they are white or multi colored as long as there are plenty. I even like icicles, the silvery strands draped across the branches. When we’re lucky enough to have a cut tree I love the smell of the pine.

Welcome!

I love snowmen. I really love snowmen! I have snowmen dishes. I have snowmen figurines. I have a snowman wreath. I have all kinds of snowmen. I have bathroom snowmen and kitchen snowmen and bedroom snowmen. Snowmen are lovable and I like the fact that they can be legitimately left out through the end of January. I have a lot of snowmen. So many, in fact, that I have found a stray in April or May that somehow was forgotten when the others were returned to their boxes. And if it’s cold the day of the find, well, that makes it okay!

Happy Hook 'em Holidays!

Let it snow!

I like presents, both giving and receiving. I like how it feels to find something that I know is just perfect for that certain someone. I like watching the expression as the gift is unwrapped. I like the look of surprise and pleasure as they gaze at the treasure. I like opening a present that someone took time to think about. I’ll wait until I have everything that was meant for me. Then I’ll tear the paper to reveal the surprise. I especially like gifts from the heart. But mostly I like that someone thought about me.

Presents!

I have an idea of the perfect Christmas in my mind and it’s never going to happen that way, no matter how hard I try. I won’t have all the presents wrapped. I don’t like to wrap and I put it off. Sometimes I’ll get some help and sometimes not. The house won’t be clean enough. It probably is clean enough but it won’t be to me. I’ll see things that should have been done. I’ll worry about it and fret until my stomach hurts. I won’t have all the food done on time. I’ll cook and wash dishes and cook and wash dishes and then do it all again. I’ll run out of time and I’ll stay up til all hours, catch a two or three hour nap and then get started again. I’ll be stressed. I’ll look for a place to hide and I’ll cry.

I know that I bring on most of the stress myself because of that perfect Christmas that’s never going to happen. Nobody else seems to worry about any of it so why should I? Nobody is going to go hungry. Everyone gets a present. There’s a place to sleep and there will be plenty of blankets and clean towels for all. And if I hurry maybe I’ll get it all done.

Christmas is a time of celebration, not just something to get through. I’ll remember that when we’re all together. We’ll eat and play and have a good time. We’ll talk of Christmas past. We’ll laugh and plan for Christmas yet to come. And we’ll love and enjoy our gift, Christmas present.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, 

Toys in ev'ry store, 

But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be 

On your own front door. 

I belong to a Yahoo knitting group. It’s ladies from across the state and I’ve made a bunch of friends, virtually and also in person. It’s called Lone Star State Knitters and if you are a female Texas knitter then it’s open to you! We get together for a face to face meeting at least once a year. Other times, at fiber festivals and the like, if we can, we meet up. Another annual activity we do is our Secret Santa exchange. It’s voluntary and it’s a lot of fun. I’m getting my box ready to send off. I hope she likes what I picked!

Ready to send off!

I made a simple ornament for her that I really liked. It’s a clear ball from Michael’s (or a similar store). I stuffed it with bits of yarn. I gathered the yarn and cut it into little pieces. Then I stuffed it all down into the clear plastic ball. I put the lid back on, tied a couple of pieces of yarn around the top and voila! A yarny ornament for Christmas! Look at some other great ideas over at Our Creative Spaces.

Clear ball stuffed with Christmas yarn scraps.

 

Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Breathe in…breathe out…

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas; 

Soon the bells will start, 

And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing 

Right within your heart.

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number

We hear you're leaving, that's OK.

I thought our little wild time had just begun. 

I guess you kind of scared yourself, you turn and run. 

But if you have a change of heart… 

When my daughter was small, like most little girls, she had a doll. This doll was a typical ‘baby’ with a cloth body, plastic head and limbs. The baby didn’t have hair but had paint symbolizing hair on the top of its head.
When she first got her doll she wanted to name it. We suggested a few things but she wasn’t interested. One day she proclaimed her doll’s name was Richard. And Richard was a girl.

Richard and Callye were always together.

First off, we didn’t know anyone named Richard at that time. I was a stay at home mom with her so I tried to think of a movie or television show that might have had someone named Richard as a character. Nothing came to mind. But she was adamant. Her doll’s name was Richard. And Richard was a girl.

Richard became part of the family. She had dresses and little booties to wear, but most of the time she was nude. She was very durable, too, as sometimes she was held by the leg or the arm and she still stayed in one piece. It was probably lucky that her features were permanent, or as permanent as paint can be. She had many adventures, some good, some not so good!

A doll like Richard. And it's a girl doll.

One morning as I was folding laundry, I had a movie playing in the background. There was a fight scene and the two men involved were yelling at each other and one said, “I’ll beat the hell out of you.” Richard and Callye were playing house in another part of the room and I glanced over to see if she’d heard. She was busy feeding Richard and had not even glanced at the television. Later that night as we were sitting together, Callye picked up Richard by the leg and started pounding her on the floor. I said, “What are you doing?” She calmly said, “I’m beating the hell out of Richard.” She’d heard.

Richard went everywhere with us. Well, almost everywhere. One Sunday, Alan was on a hunting trip and Callye and I were getting ready to go to Sunday school and church. We were dressed but Richard’s clothes were nowhere to be found. We searched high and low but alas, there was no outfit for Richard. Being the resourceful mother I am I suggested that Richard lay in mom’s bed while we were at church. It took a little negotiation but that’s what was finally decided, and Richard stayed home.

Years later, in the teacher’s lounge, a colleague, who had at one time been Callye’s Sunday school teacher, and I were visiting. We were talking about our kids and their old toys and I mentioned that Callye had loved a doll named Richard but Richard was a girl. She got a funny look on her face and said, “So that’s it!” I asked what she meant and she told me this story: One Sunday morning, a long time ago, Callye had gone to Sunday school. She told her two teachers that Richard couldn’t find any clothes and stayed at home in mom’s bed while daddy was gone.

I was mortified. We lived in a small town and you know how small towns are. She reassured me that she hadn’t thought anything bad, that Richard must be a cousin or something. Yeah, right!

Richard, who was a girl, was a part of Callye’s (and our) everyday life for a long time, but as it happens she eventually outgrew Richard. And I eventually lived down the story that quickly circulated through the school.

Richard isn’t lost. We still have her, packed away somewhere, probably without clothes, waiting to sleep in somebody’s bed! But she'll never be forgotten.

Rikki don't lose that number. 

You don't wanna call nobody else. 

Send it off in a letter to yourself...

Well, I had to tell my sister the shawl wasn’t going to be on time. I’ll finish but I can’t make the deadline. I haven’t had much time to work on it and it seems for every two inches I finish I take out three. I just need some down time and I can whip it out. So, in the meantime I decided on some instant gratification! I saw a scarf on a lady in Ruidoso, probably last year or maybe the year before. I really liked it but she was a stranger and I didn’t want to ask if I could look at it. I should have. I went home and sketched out what I thought it looked like. Then I got busy on other things and lost the paper and didn’t really think about it again.

Loops is a great yarn store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My oldest boy used to live there so I got to visit occasionally. But he’s moved so I just get updates by email and Facebook as to what’s going on there. The other day I got a note about a simple, Neck’s Best Thing scarf. Voila! That was it! That was the Ruidoso scarf! Or at least it was close enough. They were even so kind as to give a FREE pattern! I love when that happens. And it’s a real pet peeve when something says it’s free only to be free if you BUY a bunch of yarn first. But I digress. Anyway, I had some bulky yarn I’d picked up for something or other so I took it out and gave the scarf a try. I used a size 19 needle and cast on 7 stitches. I liked it fairly well but something was missing. I took it to work, for an impartial opinion, and the verdict was, MORE FRINGE! So, that was easy enough to fix, and I did. It’s kind of cute, don’t you think?

The first try. Added more fringe.

It was fun and I liked getting something finished in a short amount of time so I couldn’t stop at one. But this time I thought I would change it up some.

Cast on 7 stitches

US 19, 15mm needles

I found some other yarns I had around and added them to the fringe. This one looks kind of Christmasy.

A little sparkle.

 These are fun and I am already thinking of some other variations.

Up close--yarn is Charisma by Loops and Threads

Fringe a little longer too.

Thank you Loops for sharing this fun pattern! If you’re interested in seeing other creative projects head over to Our Creative Spaces and look around!

The Christmas season brings back memories; Memories of people, places and things that are packed away, maybe not thought of often, but never forgotten.

Rikki don't lose that number,

It's the only one you own. 

You might use it if you feel better, 

When you get home...