Monkey See, Monkey Ew

One ugly Monkey about to be frogged. First, I've decided that I really loathe this colorway. I haven't been too thrilled with the colors from the Rockin' Sock Club this year - lots of muddy greens (2 out of four skeins so far have been muddy greens).

I love the Monkey pattern, but this yarn is doing nothing for the pattern and the pattern is making a yarn I'm not super fond of to begin with into something I really don't like very much at all.

I was on the fence about re-upping for the sock club this year and now I think I will not do it next year. I like the concept, but I think I need a sock club that's tailored a bit more to my personal preferences. Next year I will introduce the Dalai Mama Sock Club which will order whatever the heck sock yarn I feel like getting for myself ;>


Moving on to the next shot: bright colors with lots of short repeats! The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. I have no clue as to the colorway.

Let's hope this is a better fit!

Something New

I have long wanted to knit Wendy Bernard's Something Red. I bought the Blue Sky cotton at kpixie and yesterday decided to cast on. This completely violates my intentions of finishing two or three items before casting on anything new, but most of my UFOs involve some sort of lace and I'm more in a stockinette mood. Y'all know how I love my stockinette.


The color is called tomato, but it's really more of a brick red. This will be the perfect fall sweater for Texas. I can wear it with a tank top once it starts to cool down (approximate Fall Start Date is October 31st. Halloween is always either the first really cold day or it's sweltering and all the kids are boiling over in their costumes.

I also cast on for the first Car Pool Sock. Any bets as to how many socks I can knit this year while waiting in the Car Pool line? (The duration is from now until the first week of June.) The average car pool wait is currently 20 minutes - afternoon only. I hit the sweet spot for morning drop-off and it takes about three minutes.

A monkey in STR Silkie. The color is Walking on the Wild Tide. Right now, it's particular to the Blue Moon sock club, but it should be available to everyone next year. I'm going to complete the ribbing and try to get in one pattern repeat this morning before consigning it to the car.

Becky is largely complete. I love how the cabled neckline continues all around the back of the neck.

I still have to weave in the ends; my most hated task.

For blocking, I am going to cheat. I'm taking the sweater to the cleaner's and letting them do it. My experience with blocking Cathay is that it looks better after being dry cleaned.

I had big plans for Getting Shit Done this afternoon. At about 10.45, I received a call from Bean's school. The power has been out all day, so they canceled classes.

Instead of errands, I am starting some Monkey socks. I need carpool knitting.

Cableiscious!

I love the cable detail on Becky. It's a very simple cable, but really pops against the plainness of the rest of the shell.




I had a Moment of Duh last night upon realizing that, if I seam after the fact, I'll lose the edge stitch on each side, so it won't look the same as the established double cable section.

I decided to knit two extra repeats of the cable pattern before dividing for the neckline. That should give me a crucial inch and a half. I don't mind a deep vee, but there's a deep vee and then there's the Grand Canyon.

Inching along

Becky is inching along. I'm at the waist on the front now. I have another couple of inches or so and then I get to start the cable neckline.

I'm trying to figure out how to make the neckline a bit more demure. My cleavage is substantially more impressive than the model's. Instead of an expanse of chestbone, you'd get quite the eyeful. I know I can just wear a cami underneath, but it's freaking hot here and I'd rather not if I don't have to. I have decided that I will finish the sweater per the pattern and then decide what to do. I imagine I can just seam the neckline a crucial inch or two to preserve my dignity. The way the neckline is designed, it should be fairly easy to do since there is already a double line of the cable at the base of the vee.

An FO of another sort

I married a "handy" guy. He can install a new light fixture, rewire a lamp, take down wallpaper and mud a wall, etc. He also likes to Build Stuff.

Usually, we end up with some weird project like the beginnings of a solar-powered air conditioner (no, I am not kidding) that never get completed and end up rotting in the side yard.

This time, we ended up with this.

A fort for Bean.

It still needs to be stained and have a roof put on, but it's pretty darn cool. It's 6x6 feet, so there's room for all.

Bean is thrilled. Daddy is The Coolest Ever. I'm thrilled because it's finished and, when big trash comes, the huge pile of wood in my backyard will go away.


The stand of trees are crape myrtles. This is what happens when you don't commit crape murder every year. They don't need to be topped. This tree blooms numerous times throughout the year - delicate lavender blossoms. It's gorgeous.

Poor Dr. Pig though, he now has the Creeping Death Crud that has afflicted the rest of us. On his birthday no less. Happy Birthday anyway, darling!

Trouble

Oh, man, I've spent the last three days uploading stuff to Ravelry. I have all this stuff on my Palm Pilot, but Ravelry is so much more fun. And I haven't even started exploring everyone else's stuff. Additive is the least of it. I've been slogging through my huge pile of WIPs.

I'm currently working on Debbie Bliss's Becky in Cathay. I wonder if they've done a little reworking of Cathay, because this is a new color and it is much less splitty than when I worked with it right after it came out.



I'm also trying to finish the Sea Silk Lace Wings shawl from Alice at Lettuce Knit. It takes one skein of sea silk. My problem is that I keep putting it down to do other things and then it takes me a bit to figure out where the hell I am. It's a super easy pattern, but somehow it gives me brain freeze. After I finish those two, I'm diving back into CeCe.

This has been a very odd year and, while I have started a ton of projects, I don't think I've finished any of them. Several of them are either reworkings of almost-finished items that I decided I loathed. I'm back to the knuckle-down plan I always use when the WIPs get out of hand: finish three and you can start one. Much finish projects!!!

Updating everything

Somehow I managed to delete my blog template and all my links. I do have a copy, but I decided that, since I'm going to have to redo it anyway, I might as well change my template. Hopefully, I'll get that up later this week.

I've been cleaning out, cleaning up, etc. It's amazing how much stuff piles up when you aren't looking. I'm doing pretty well and I even have a pile of yarn that I need to sell. Let's face it, the chances of me knitting with Rowan Kid Classic for wear in Texas is pretty slim.

I've also gotten into the fabulous time-suck that is Ravelry. I received my invitation back in May and still had done nothing other than put in a username and password. I started feeling sort of guilty that they have this enormous waiting list, and yet I can't get my butt in gear to make use of my membership. So, I've been adding stash and needles. Hurricane season means that it's cloudy all the time here - though with very little rain. Hopefully, I'll get some sun this week so that I can photograph stash. I feel kind of weird putting my stash online, because it's really gotten out of control, and now I just feel greedy. I've given away tons of very old stash with the realization that it I haven't knitted anything with it after having it for 15 years, I probably won't ever knit with it.

Mostly, we've just been sick for the last month. It seems like that is all over. I still have a helluva cough, but I took my last antibiotic today so I'm hoping it'll dry up this week.

It's all just in time for Bean to start school. Start the wailing and gnashing of teeth - I have a kindergartener!

Expounding the reazles for sneezles and wheezles

AA Milne would be proud, because I certainly have Phtheezles.

My internist has a new nurse who I haven't met. She asked if I had been around Bean while she was running fever. Heh.

Thank God for antibiotics and cough medicine with codeine. Now, I'm just hoping Dr. Pig doesn't get it.

And hey! The antibiotic can also be used to treat anthrax!

Maybe they knew I'm a knitter?

Starts with P

A skein of cashmere to the person who guessed pneumonia.

Bean is Not Well although she loved having the chest x-ray and the thought that people were taking pictures of her insides. Me, well, let's just say that "Turning Japanese" kept running through my head.
I want the doctor to take your picture
So I can look at you from inside as well

Ahem.

It's been a long day and then I get notice that my rebate for my lovely carpet was denied because Great Indoors seems to think that 5/27 does not fall between the dates of 4/15 and 5/31. Bastards. We'll be contacting the store directly about that one.

If I had any energy left after 4 1/2 hours of doctors and pharmacies, I'd take a picture of my dinner. As it is, you'll just have to envision a very full glass of an extremely dry French rose.

A plague upon your house

Bean has been ultra-generous and given me whatever godoxious plague that she has. The bright point was that, after I finally took to my bed this afternoon, she brought me one of her favorite stuffed animals to make me feel better. Given that Bean has had this crap for about 10 days so far, has been on antibiotics for three days and is still running fever, coughing her head off and generally pretty darn sick; my future is bleak.

Back to bed.

Wake-Up Call

We're going to the circus today. Bean very timidly asked the doctor if she could still go yesterday and the doctor gave her a Well Duh! look and told her, "Of course you can go. Why not?!) Our church has a summer program for the small fry, and, when they offered up circus tickets at $10 each, Dr. Pig and I responded with a hearty, "Hell, yeah!" to be parent leaders of the expedition.

We are meeting at the church in an our or so and then taking the train into downtown. It's going to be a total blast.

Bean cannot wait. In the most literal of fashions. Somehow, she decided we all needed to get up at 6.30am, so we won't be late. At 11.30pm, I was woken out of a very sound sleep to a small person by my bed telling me it was 6.30am. I sent her out to her father who was still awake for a glass of water to help with the coughing and to go back to sleep.

At 5.03am, we are both awakened out of even sounder sleeps (I think I was drooling) by a very cheerful voice telling us that it HAD to be 6.30 by now.

We just got her up for the real wakeup and she's dragging around much as you'd expect. The best part? "Mama? I'm reeeeaaaallly tired." Heh! Me too, you little rat, but at least I can have coffee. You can't. Nyah nyah nyah!

Just when you think it's stopped raining

It floods.

Bean has had a nagging and increasingly worrisome cough percolating for about a week, so today I took her to the doctor. Experience has taught me that in the case of anything that seems cold related, it's best to let it wait for a week unless accompanied by a crazy fever. Otherwise, they just tell you to wait a week and then charge you $120 (after insurance) for the pleasure.

She has an antibiotic, thank Pete. While we were waiting for the visit and then the recheck of her oxygen levels and then another listen to the lungs, etc - took 1 1/2 hours, all hell broke loose weather-wise. It was sunny when we went in.

About 15 minutes before we left, it started raining cats and dogs. I asked a nice lady to stand with her while I ran to get the car. (You can do this in Texas plus it's not like there was anywhere she could go.) I stepped out from under the porte cacher and was immediately soaked to the skivvies. It was like standing under a shower whilst fully clothed. I couldn't see through my glasses. The puddles were about a foot deep. Weird stuff. And, of course, I had my new leather purse and a pair of leather loafers on. The loafers are probably a write-off, but I left the purse with Bean, so it's fine.

So, get the car under the porte chacher and get Bean in the car and go home to find Dr. Pig making dinner.

Dry off.

About an hour and a half later, Dr. Pig heads out to fill the prescription. It stopped raining an hour ago, so all should be well. He heads to get coffee for tomorrow first, but the intersection is completely flooded out so he heads north for the scrip. The power at the Walgreen's is completely out and the doors are locked with a sign up.

Off to the next Walgreen's. This involves a trip past the flood point.

Maybe we stopped too soon on the ark building. I did a quick check of our yard and there are some small branches down, screens off the gutters, and a general vague sense of something apocalyptic in the neighborhood. We regularly get high straight line winds and other meteorological oddities up on our hill, but this, apparently, was a doozy.

Miracles do happen

Most of you will remember that Bean had surgery for strabismus on both of her eyes in January.

Today was her six month followup and the doctor told us that Bean no longer has to wear glasses! The doctor was just as amazed as we were but Bean is doing great and has near perfect vision and her eyes are in alignment! We are having to patch her to strengthen her weaker eye for a couple of hours a day, but that's OK.

Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers at that time because I fully believe that had a hand in what is pretty much a miracle for our family. It may not sound that significant, but if strabismus isn't treated properly, it can result in blindness in the affected eye.

Obviously, she may have to wear glasses again in the future, but it's amazing that she's out of them for the first time since she was 20 months old!

Carpet

The carpet will be installed Tuesday.

Because I cannot read a calendar, I scheduled the carpet to be installed two days before I am hosting an art class for my church kids group. The plan was to have the class outside, however, we are still busy with the ark building and whatnot and I will never move to Seattle because My God The Rain Is Making Me Crazy.

Normal Texas summers include swimming and playing in the sprinklers and being outside and having to get your butt to the playground before 9 so it's not too hot to play. This Texas summer features nothing but rain. We had 11 inches of rain in June. Normal is around 2 inches. My tomatoes were all blooming and lovely and ready to produce a huge crop. We counted 182 grape tomatoes growing on the vines and countless blooms ready to pop. All rained to death. We never got any sun so they never ripened.

Meanwhile, I have to have 1400 sq feet of house including all of our closets moved into the garage before Tuesday. And I'm hosting a dinner party tonight and I have a hair appointment at 2. Apparently, I no longer believe in sitting down.

Good thing guacamole is the easiest and most appreciated appetizer in the world.

Guac

2 medium Hass avocados
Juice of one lime
small spoonful of mayo
minced red onion
minced cilantro
diced tomato
salt

Dice the avocado and add the lime and mayo and mash until smoothish. You want some texture, but no big chunks of avocado. Add salt to taste. Add the red onion, tomato and cilantro to taste. I add probably a couple of tablespoons of each. Taste and add a bit more salt and lime if needed.

Make it up no more than half an hour before serving. Put in a bowl and put plastic wrap on top of the guac (not the bowl, the guac itself), making sure no air pockets are left. The pit doesn't really do anything except stop oxidation where it comes in contact with the guac. Putting plastic wrap directly on the guac accomplishes the same goal.

Rock Star

Bean achieved an important milestone last weekend.

Her first rock concert!

This one featured the not-at-all-painful musical stylings of Ralph's World (punk rocker turned kid's singer) who sing one of my favorite songs ever:

M-O-M-M-Y needs C-O-F-F-E-E
D-A-D-D-Y needs C-O-F-F-E-E

(fun and educational because Bean learned to spell Mommy, Daddy and coffee!)

also featuring the verse

I need a latte, a cappuccino
and tonight I think I'll have a little vino

At the end of show, they got all the kids on stage and, of course, parents took their kids.

This is what happened.



Yes, I'm playing the bass.

Yes, I'm really playing the bass.








You can see the part of the bass player on the extreme right of the photo. And pieces of three of my adult friends in the background. The bass player handed me the bass and told me to strum. So, I did.

There's video.

With headbanging.

(Much to the bass player's delight - he said most people are too embarrassed to have fun with it. Like you can embarrass me.)

Fortunately, the people with the camera are in their 40s like me, so YouTube is doubtful.

Parts

I was putting the washing into the dryer when I spied, on the bottom of the washer, a roach corpse. Or, rather, two pieces of a roach corpse. Now, I am fine with any kind of bug or critter except roaches. In Texas, we get these enormous Bugs Of Doom. This thing was probably a good 1 and 1/2" inches when whole. So, anyway, I'm putting the laundry in the dryer and then I see roach bits stuck in a couple of the holes in the side of the washer. And a big smear of roach guts.

Fortunately, my husband was still home and cleaned out the washer for me (I then ran a towel and alot of bleach through because EWWWWWWWWWWW) but I had to shake out the laundry and, I don't really want to talk about it except to reiterate that I Really Don't Like Roaches.

I'm rewashing everything now. I was afraid I'd be washing my face and run into a roach leg.

Gives me the wiggins.

I've got good company for my birthday

Thumper and Yarn Harlot.

We've been doing nothing but celebrating. We went out to eat Tuesday courtesy of a friend, last night courtesy of my husband and, today for lunch, courtesy of my parents.

After all of this gluttony, I must eat super-healthy for a while because it's bathing suit season and I'm passing the point of wanting to appear in a suit. Granted, most women hate bathing suits, but I want to keep it where the first thing that's noticed is the chest. That way no one will realize I even have thighs! My thighs are threatening a corporate takeover. Bad thighs! The sad fact is that after 40, your body views calories in an entirely different way and wants to keep them and love them and hug them and slather your butt with them.

Today is the start of an overly busy weekend. It's been feast or famine around here. I'm hoping that, after this week, we can settle down to a mellow summer. I need time to knit a shawl for my mother's birthday in a couple of months.

My foot hurts

Oh, it's not awful, but I have been on my feet for most of the day and, suddenly, my big toe has started to feel a bit owwy.

Good excuse to sit around and knit while Bean is at Vacation Bible School, huh? (VBS this year is a bit too Jesus Camp for me, so I declined to teach it. Bean loves it and the people are all very, very sweet, but I'm a bit too world religion to relate stories as "a true story from God's word". I'm more on the level of, "it's a cool book about God and have you read this one from the Upanishads?")

Today, I occupied myself working on a business plan to get angel investors for a friend's real estate development company. (And suddenly found myself with the job title of Director of Operations which just makes me laugh like hell. That MBA is coming in mighty handy these days. That and years of experience watching small companies blow up through lack of proper planning.)

Not as bad as it looks

It's a good thing that you can't see under the bandages, because I have a nice slice in my foot. I patched myself up with butterfly sutures and a couple of big bandaids, but it's a bit nasty under there (no, I did not need stitches, but it was close).




Don't drop one of these on your foot.