All day football

Now, I am not all that much of an American Football fan. Growing up in Minnesota, I actually attended a few Viking’s games. It was always December, the stadium outdoors and the wind blowing cold with snow. I was always excited to go, after all a child being included in an adult outing? And always desperate to leave by half-time.

Football was important in high school only for being in the band and having fingers so cold that they barely were able to manage on the metal pads of my flute. By the time I hit college, I had too much to do just keeping myself in class, fed and housed. I never attended a game, didn’t even know when they were except by the distraction of the extra people and traffic on campus.

Did I mention that a TV was not part of my daily life or interest? That limits sports to anything that might be heard over a radio. Queue baseball, the only sport (maybe Cricket?) which is just as entertaining in voice only mode as it might be in person. Back to American football. The next time I remember anything at all to do with it was after we were married and hosting a Super Bowl Sunday party. Really just an excuse to get friends together for salad, spaghetti, garlic bread and whatever else happened to be contributed.

All the years we lived in Europe, the time zones made the sport totally and completely irrelevant. Besides, there was Fußball! A much more interesting and relevant sport. Soccer for you English speakers.

So here I am, near the end of 2021 in a house perched on a hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Not exactly anything that was in my plans. Ensconced in a chair which I purchased back in the early 1980s on our first tour in Europe for way too many DMarks. Unlike the loungers of today, the footstool is separate and is more likely to be hosting stitching supplies than my feet. George’s excessively large screen is mounted on the wall, tuned to a game. We see the Raiders go down in shame, the 49ers out maneuver the Bengals, Green Bay stomp on Chicago. There are intermittent looks at other games happening around the league. The commercials are still insurance adverts, cars, vacation homes, and alcohol.

Me? I am mostly stitching and seeing the important plays because of replay…..

Cross-Stitch Progress –

I have added a few hundred stitches more to “You belong to me” by LongDogSamplers. I can now see the start of the first pyramid. I mentioned that there are 12 pages to the project. Four across and three down which means that they are actually rather narrow and long. According to PatternKeeper – I am at 29% complete. I do not expect to finish this year, but hope to add 100-200 stitches a day.

then there is The Mandalorian – the first part of which was essentially started on my journey home, so was stitched on starting the morning I left the ship, while waiting in Barbados’ Grantley International Airport, on the plane to Toronto, overnight in Toronto, on the flight home and the first three large letters since I have been home. Now on to the baby Yoda and the storm trooper. This is a kit from ForbiddenFiberCo.

and finally, there is the WitchyStitcher’s Creepy Cryptids. This project is on a scroll frame, so the four weekly released that I missed while traveling had to wait. The fabric is from theVintageNeedleArts on Etsy. I have two more Cryptids – Nessie and the Dover Demon to stitch before 7 January.

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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