:Kathy on…St. Pat’s Day
Posted: March 17, 2008 Filed under: Apso Aficionados 1 Comment
Would believe 3 Irish “sit”-ters??
Blarney spoken here!
Happy St. Pat’s Day!
:Weekend update
Posted: March 17, 2008 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain 2 CommentsA quick weekend update before digging out so Carol can take Suzanne to work. Her Jeep is in the garage. Again. Sleek Sue and I will follow a bit later. Zena and Wyatt are scheduled to have some baby teeth removed. Wouldn’t ya know, it started snowing last night. It’s too dark to tell if it’s still snowing this morning.
And on Sunday morning she was ready to eat! The physical therapist had been by before we arrived and had Chris standing up on a stool by the bed. Everything seems to be working correctly, confirmed by a few tests Dr. Duke did while we were there. Chris is in good spirits, has all her wits about her and will be moved out of ICU this morning.
Besides the smile, note the carpenter’s level hanging off that rack. Her surgery was done using some kind of Stealth Guided Computer Assisted Navigation system…the latest technology. But the machine tracking her blood pressure isn’t working correctly. Not sure how the level is suppose to fix that, but I couldn’t resist getting a photo!
The other day Kathy asked me why is Chris my hero. She’s my hero because she has accepted her situation, from the beginning, with grace and dignity. She doesn’t whine about it; she simply looks at what must be done to buy more time, as long as it’s quality time. “I’m buying myself some more time.” Her positive outlook has surely helped her defy the odds. The survival rate for IBC (Inflammatory Breast Cancer) is 30% is the first year. Chris has passed the five year mark. Yesterday, the occupational therapist asked her about her long-term goal. To play a round of golf, was the reply. You can bet she’ll be doing that later this spring. Or this summer.
Kathy also wondered what has touched me the most. My family, I suppose. Saturday afternoon, Rick and Nate picked me up from Clothes Day – would that be Clothes Quarter Day? – and I joined the rest of the family at the hospital. After surgery, Dr. Duke entered the waiting room, took a look and commented on how many of us there were (seven). “That’s the way we roll!” my niece Emilie replied.
:Nate’s Quilt Square
Posted: March 16, 2008 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain 2 CommentsDoing a bit of homework for the Library of Memories I’m taking, before heading down the hill to see Chris and the rest of the family, I came upon this. Thought I’d share…
:Saturday
Posted: March 15, 2008 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain 1 CommentToday’s the day. Chris – my sister-in-law, not the Chris that has commented on this blog – at this very moment, is undergoing the long preparation for her surgery today. It really is the only option she has. The other is to simply live with the tumor, letting it grow and take over her brain. :::sigh::: Needless to say, things have been a little….unsettled….scattered.
I’ve immersed myself in a series of books which I discovered about two weeks ago. Audio books are one of my pleasures in life. Usually I reserve the books, but once in a while I peruse the shelves, which is exactly how I found The New Year’s Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. In a review of one her books, the Library Journal says, “Chiaverini has pieced together a beautiful story…. Women – daughters, sisters and mothers – will enjoy.” I’ve just started my 4th, The Quilter’s Legacy. She develops her characters so that you care about each and every one of them, although it may take some time to understand and appreciate the personality traits of some of the more colorful characters. Woven throughout each book is information on quilting. The diversion, the characters, the concept, Elm Creek Quilters is just what my soul needs right now!
Inspired, I pulled out the pieces of a quilt I made ten years ago in a class titled Colorado Sampler Quilt. I told Rick I want to attend Elm Creek Quilt Camp for a week and get it finished. 🙂 I learned when you make a quilt, you start with a palette of colors. I selected my favorite colors, black and red, along with white and gray for contrast. Mine was definitely the most contemporary in our class. The instructor, especially with several of the blocks, was always curious what I’d come up with.
Hayride served as our signature block. Of course, mine included a Lhasa Apso along with my favorite yoga pose, Warrior 2.
Rail Fence
Foundation Piece – Pine Tree
This one was the hardest, because the representation is fairly real. What else could I do but a night sky!
Covered Wagon
Road to Colorado
Cabin Pattern..In the Elm Creek Quilters’ series I learned that, traditionally, the door is red or yellow. Red sybolizes the hearth. I can’t remember what yellow symbolizes. Quilts, hanging on a clothesline, were used as signals along the Underground Railroad. This pattern – or some version of it – with a black door, indicated a safe haven for slaves.
Cripple Creek and Purple Mountain Majesties
Wild Goose Chase
Bear Paw and Colorado Star
:Uprising with 2008 Olympics as a platform begins…
Posted: March 15, 2008 Filed under: Lotsa Lhasa Info 2 CommentsBy Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 14, 2008; 7:58 AM
BEIJING, March 14 — A week of tense confrontations over Chinese rule in Tibet erupted in violence Friday, as hundreds of protesters clashed with police and set fire to shops in the center of Lhasa. Doctors reported dozens of wounded streaming into area hospitals and one witness said the downtown area was “in a state of siege.”
The rare breakout of violence, the worst in 20 years in the capital city of a remote mountainous region that is the heart of Tibetan Buddhism, posed a challenge to the Chinese government as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympic games in August. Seeking to make the games a worldwide celebration of its swift economic progress over the past three decades, the Chinese government has steadfastly attempted to project an image of harmony and stability, even while tightening its grip over the restive region.
“This spiraling unrest has triggered the scenario the Chinese prayed would not happen,” said Robbie Barnett, director of modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University. “Now we’re just watching the clock tick until people get off the street or the Chinese open fire.”
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, citing “first-hand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence,” issued an advisory warning tourists to avoid Lhasa. A doctor said in a telephone interview that he received 41 wounded at the Tibetan Autonomous Region People’s Hospital in Lhasa. An official at the People’s Hospital of Lhasa said there were many wounded, but gave no details.
A person who answered the phone at a Lhasa firehouse confirmed “many places are on fire,” but said there were “too many” to be specific.
The protests began Monday, when a few Buddhist monks and nuns demonstrated in a public plaza to commemorate Tibet’s 1959 failed uprising against China. Hundreds of monks from a nearby monastery marched to join them, but were stopped by police, who arrested between 50 and 60 of them, according to news reports. Hundreds more monks took to the streets on Tuesday to demand the release of those arrested, and were reportedly dispersed with tear gas. By Wednesday, police and paramilitary officials had surrounded at least two monasteries and the monks could not leave, witnesses said. By Thursday, the roads to the three main monasteries in the mountains near Lhasa were blocked and reports emerged that two monks had attempted suicide and others were staging hunger strikes.
Early Friday morning, there were reports of armed personnel carriers stationed on the road to the monasteries. Fu Jun, a spokesman for the local Chinese government, said in a telephone interview that the situation had “stabilized.”
But at 11 a.m., monks from a small monastery in the heart of Lhasa attempted to start a demonstration, the Times of London reported. As police attempted to break it up, hundreds of Tibetans stepped in and the fighting began.
As evening came, bars and restaurants in the city center closed down. “We want to stay inside,” said one bar manager in a telephone interview. “It’s safer.”
The Chinese government had no immediate comment on the violence, but had previously blamed the violence on the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist’s spiritual leader, who fled to exile in India after the 1959 uprising. “This is a political scheme by the Dalai group, attempting to separate China and try to make some unrest in the normal harmonious, peaceful life of Tibetan people,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters on Thursday.
Sonam Dagpo, secretary of information and international relations for the Dalai Lama’s organization in Dharamshala, said that was not the case. “The Dalai Lama has always advised events to be peaceful,” he said in an interview on Friday morning. “His holiness did not ask anyone to protest.”
Meanwhile, in India, a group of 100 Tibetan exiles who had pledged to march back to Tibet to call attention to their demands for religious freedom and Tibetan independence from China, were sentenced to 14 days in detention by a local magistrate after being stopped by police on Thursday near Dehra. They had walked about two hours from their starting point in Dharamshala.
“We are totally focused and committed right now to the march and our effort right now is to secure the release of the marchers,” said Tsewang Rinzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, in a telephone interview. “We know what is going on. We can see that India appears to be cozying up to China at all costs, and that is a disappointment.”
Rama Lakshmi contributed to this report.
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 