Friday football

One option for Friday night entertainment in The Small Town is the local high school football game. We went there last night.
The admission charge is just a dollar or two cheaper than the high school games in The Big City. The concession food prices are about the same also. 1 mystery meat hot dog + 1 bag of popcorn + 2 cardboard pizza slices= $7.00. Whether there or here, two people can watch the game for the price of one movie theatre ticket.
The half-time show brought to us of course by the high school marching band. Throughout the game I think of my niece who is a trumpeter in the marching band at her high school back in The Big City.

Boy oh boy was it cold! (to me. My Darling Husband thought it refreshing.) It's time to bring out the scarves and heavy gloves.

Go team! Ours are the fellows in orange and black.

Sigh. Football is one of those things I'll just never understand. My Darling Patient Husband--and others in the past--explains some of the rules and technicalities of the game to me, but they've gone out my other ear by the time we watch the next game. But knitting I understand and it's portable. I once took my knitting to my niece's high school's football game. Probably I was the only knitter in the stands. But no matter. It made the minutes fly by until my niece marched with her bandmates on to the field.Even though I am usually totally oblivious to the wheeling and dealing of the moment (Where's the ball??? Which way are they running???), I have the uncanny ability to follow along the game. All I have to do is watch what the crowd is doing. When other fans clap and cheer, I know it is time to clap and cheer.

Of course, that works best when the section I'm sitting in is occupied only by one team's fans. It doesn't work too well at an NFL game where fans from both teams are mixed up like cookie dough in the stands. When My Darling Husband and I were on our honeymoon last year, I surprised him with tickets to a Denver Broncos game. We cheered for the Broncos that day. I remember accidentally clapping for the opposing team then slinking back down into my seat in slight disconcertment upon the realization. The Broncos won that game and even I was excited. I do enjoy going to football games.

Watching it on television is another story. That's like listening to someone talk in a foreign language I don't understand. A foreign language that's not pretty to hear. Once in a million quarters I can follow the ball and then I know what is going on. For a few moments.

Think I'll knit up an orange scarf to match my black coat. Darling Husband requests a manly black scarf. At least I understand color theory.

a sample history lesson

A man emailed me to say he didn't understand about samplers...what are they? I know it was a man because I personally know the fellow. Anyway, for all the uninitiated wanna-be needleworkers and anybody else reading this, here's a short history of samplers:

Samplers began as...samples prior to the 20th century. They were samples of a young girl's embroidery skills in mastering various embroidery stitches and patterns. They developed into embroidered pictures and commemoration pieces.

For additional history reading, go here.

Here are some of my favorites from the book Samplers, by Susan Mayor & Diana Fowle.

This is a fine example of an early sample. Definitely a conglomeration of the embroiderer's various stitches.
Moving on to the picture/commemoration style samplers of later years....

Do you have pictures of your own samplers on your blog or Flickr that we can see? If so, leave a comment with the location on today's post and I'll link to them.

Back to modern times. My Darling Husband and I traveled to A Nearby City for an event last weekend. The hotel we stayed at was quite charming. It was built in the 1920s in the Tudor style. The hallways were even a maze, just like a castle. It was so charming that each room has a balcony, and each balcony has a swing! Love-a-lee.

roses are red, roses on blue

Look what I found in the mailbox today:

A Cath Kidston shopping bag from our blogging friend at Vintage Pleasure. I like her blog because we share a penchant for pretty and practical vintage items, she upholds family life in the traditional sense when posting about family, her blog is pleasing to the eye, and well, I have always been an Anglophile.

The bag was made for a good cause. Coincidentally it just happens to be one of my favorite color schemes which is red and light blue together. It's meant to be a shopping bag, but it's my new knitting bag. No more plastic bags from the stores for my knitting.Just in time for knitting group at the library tonight.