As you wish.

This post is all about giving my readers what they want. First, Mel C requested that I blog about something crafty and Grandma Gert.

The crafty is that this weekend, I finally learned how to use the spool knitter that I bought last year. When it comes to anything involving fibers, I'm one of those people that needs to see how you do things. I can't just read directions. Thank goodness for YouTube, because, yes, people have posted instructional videos on how to make i-cords with a spool knitter. This is either going to be a scarf for Mommy Elephant, or, if I'm ambitious enough, I may make a really long cord and coil it into a blanket for her.

As I was reviewing my tracker today I noticed that the blog had a referral from someone who had googled "gert ross shaler." When I performed the same search, I found links to two very cool newspaper articles from 20+ years ago about Grandma Gert. Here's one from 1986 (Look for the paragraph titled "Guards 'em all"). And here's the feature article about her that was run in 1990.

If you're still out there somewhere, to the person who was searching for Grandma Gert: She is alive and well and as feisty as ever. She has retired to a nursing home and will celebrate her 91st birthday next month.

Next up is blog reader Ellen, who had asked that the blog's banner link back to the blog and not to Flickr. You see, the blog banners are hosted on Flickr, whose terms of service dictate that all photos posted to an external site link back to Flickr. In the interest of keeping the blog as user friendly as possible, I have decided to be a rebel and have changed the link. Shhh...it will be our little secret.



That about takes care of everyone, so on to other blog business. This weekend, I made yet another batch of cookies from the Martha Stewart cookie book. These are called Buttery Pecan Rounds. As the name indicates, they are very buttery and very pecan-y. I'm kinda in love with them.



Also this weekend, Lauren attended her friend Lauren's fifth birthday party. You read that right - like her mother, Lauren likes to make friends with girls that have the same name. She and ten other little girls played laser tag, and as you can see from the photo above, when they put that gear on, they mean business. I would post more photos, but I fear that the government may see them and want to use these girls as part of their elite forces.