Sunset

This is what the sunset looks like over my world:



I submitted it to the local news, we'll see if the meteorologist puts it on the news. We get a great view of storm clouds moving in, which I've submitted in the past, and he has used them. I wish the fiery red of the sun was more obvious in the picture, but you'll just have to take my word for it. That's the Hawktree golf club over on the right.

Summer

What is there to do in the summertime? Some knitters quit knitting when the temperature rises, but not I! Instead, I knit lacy socks. This is Pomotamus from Knitty, I'm knitting it on Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Seaside. I've been super busy with work (thanks, Tammie) so it's going pathetically slow. There are three pattern repeats in the leg, and I haven't even finished the first one.


And this is what happens on a hot afternoon when grandma takes the kids, and mom decides to hit the produce store while she's a little bit hungry:

I went a little hog-wild, but at least it's all healthy, right? I also bought a new blender so I can make smoothies. What the heck am I going to do with an entire watermelon?? Can you make watermelon smoothies? Watermelon daiquiris? Hmm... And there WERE more cherries and strawberries, but the boys and I basically ate them for dinner last night. Dan has been in Denver, and was supposed to be home by now, but his flight got cancelled, so now they're driving back. I expect him home around midnight, instead of 12:30 this afternoon. Bah.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Here are some pictures from our weekend trip to western North Dakota. We stayed in Medora and visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. These are some general pictures of the park:





Those are wild horses. We also saw one buffalo, some Elk and about 400,000 prairie dogs in a prairie dog urban sprawl ("town" doesn't do it justice - it even has suburbs). We decided it was the NYC of prairie dog towns.

Photo Deluge

My first harvest! Cherry Belle radishes. We ate some last night.

Darien all geared up for soccer. Obviously.

Running the ball down the field...

And back.

He had a great time, and can't wait for Wednesday night!

Jaywalkers

Here they are in all their glory:



I completed my Jaywalker socks over the weekend. They are so bright, not my usual style at all, but they're fun. It's amazing how alike they turned out, especially since I certainly didn't plan them that way. I did end up having enough yarn with some left over - whew! I already started a new sock using KnitPicks Simple Stripes (a yarn they are phasing out, unfortunately), pictures to come soon.

Yesterday I joined the Sexy Knitters Club KAL (knitalong) group. Our first project will be Tempting II - a sweater I've been wanting to knit. Along with about 37 other Knitty projects.

Tonight is Darien's first night of soccer. I will take pictures and post this week. He has soccer Monday and Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 7:30 until the beginning of August.

Fun in the Sun

What is there to do on a 94-degree day? THIS!


Don't you love their farmer tans? Meanwhile, Mason was entertaining mommy inside:


He did that all on his own.

Look What I Made!

I give you my completed Jaywalker sock, in Socks That Rock yarn, colorway Xmas Rock:



There's some crazy flashing/pooling, but I don't care, it makes them unique. The cool thing is, when I do the second sock, it'll look nothing like this one. Here's another shot from a slightly different angle. OK, I really just wanted to show off my sexy lower leg/ankle/foot. Rrrawwrrr.



I'm scared to death that I won't have enough for the second sock. If you're a fellow socknitter and you have a little extra Xmas Rock hanging around, email me. Call me cheap, but I just don't feel like spending another $23 on a toe's worth of sock.

And this is what I made on Monday Night Out with The Girls:



We went to Urban Girl for a little jewelry-making fun, and then margaritas afterward. This is a mother's bracelet - my birthstone (aquamarine) is on the far left, then two peridots surrounding the letter D, two sapphires surrounding the letter A, and two uh.. pink stones (tourmalines?) surrounding the letter M, then Dan's birthstone (peridot) and our wedding stone is the dangle (sapphire). It's my DAM bracelet!

Flashing my Stash

I've seen "Flash your Stash" pictures before, so I had to do my own. Now keep in mind, this is ALL SOCK YARN. I have other yarn. But I can make 14 pairs of socks!

Socks!

It's been a while since I posted sock pictures. So, below are my most recent socks. The pair on the left is Sockotta, I knit most of the first cuff during the Civic Chorus Evening on Broadway performance.. I only sang at the beginning and the end, so I had all this time to knit in between. The pair on the right is Opal Elements #1076. They are so pretty, and they turned out exactly identical! Ignore the cat paw in the upper right corner of the photo.




And below is my newest sock creation! I'm currently working on a Jaywalker sock, the yarn is Socks That Rock, colorway Xmas Rock. I've never done Jaywalkers before, it's fun! It's too hot to wear socks these days, but when fall arrives, I'll have really pretty feet.


I recently bought two skeins of Socks That Rock (Xmas Rock and Carbon), and six skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (Black Purl, Aslan, and Seaside). I ordered Sensational Knitted Socks from Amazon, which arrived last week, so I have all kinds of interesting new patterns with which to knit up these gorgeous new yarns. They are SO soft and the colors are unbelievable.

I'll admit it - it's awesome that I have a sock yarn colorway named for a character in The Chronicles of Narnia. Rrraaaarrrr!

Even Better

Thursday night I made a nice dinner and decided to crack open a bottle of my favorite chardonnay, to date. I haven't had any Rombauer in quite some time, and it was yummy. I had a second glass last night.

After dinner, we went to the Band Night parade. I wanted to go for nostalgic reasons, because on Band Day fourteen years ago, I first got to know the cute, nerdy trumpet player with the fast car, who is now my husband. We were in the Century High School band, I was the fife player (in the fife & drum corps, which you can't see in the pic below because they're way in front - but you can see them and the color guard in the link above) my senior year. But this is a shot of the band as it is now, and I had to repress the urge to holler, "Looking good, Patriots, WOOOOOOOOO!" at them as they marched by. Or "Guide!" which is only funny if you're a former Patriot. I distinctly remember some former CHS grads yelling that at us, at my first parade, and I thought it was mean and funny at the same time. I still have a little pride for my alma mater, even though my brother is going to make fun of me EXCESSIVELY for it.

Adam M., Katie N., and Cade R. - I know you don't read this blog, but we had some fun that year! I wonder if I can still remember how to play Yankee Doodle on my piccolo...

Look at that smile!

My baby's gone! Darien lost his first tooth tonight, as you can see. We're not sure yet what the tooth fairy is going to bring him. I guess it depends on how much cash is in Daddy's wallet. Congratulations to my sweet little guy!

Portrait of Relaxation

Yummy. Notice the empty wine rack in the background. Time to go shopping!

A funny note - excerpt from a conversation the boys and I were having at dinner:

Adam: Are bananas a fruit, mommy?
Me: Yes, bananas are a fruit. What other fruits can you think of?
Adam: Oranges!
Darien: Apples!
Me: and Watermelons, too!
Dan: Uncle Chris.

This is a test to see if he ever actually reads my blog.

La La La

Here is a picture of our chorus performing last night, taken with Dan's Treo. You probably can't make everyone out, but I'm in the fourth row (second row from the back) first person on the left. The chorus link above is not really a link to our website, because we don't have one, but hey - it's the best I could do!




This is a view of one of the boxes inside the beautiful Belle Mehus Auditorium:



Here's what mom and I did today! We planted radishes, beets, lettuce, and carrots. We'll plant the rest (warm-weather crops) later on:



And this is Adam being... Adam.

Blossoms 'n Baby Buns

I took this picture of the juneberry bushes out in our yard this morning. They're so tiny and pretty!

I did not have a good week. Shall I summarize? To start the week off, my mother-in-law got pneumonia on Saturday and had to spend Saturday night and Sunday in the hospital. Darien was sick (vomiting) from 4:30 Wednesday morning until 8:30 the following morning, and stayed home from school for two days. I discovered I'm over-scheduled for May and June: I have clients due 5/17, 6/3 and 6/5. And my mom will be out of town from 5/17 until 5/28, I myself will be out of town 5/27-5/28. So I'm praying my 5/17 client goes early and the other two hold off until June. Then on Wednesday, on the way to a client meeting, I backed out of the garage and hit my mom's car and did $768 worth of damage to it. Then to top off my great week, Kernel decided to investigate mouse poison. So Dan induced vomiting (a 50/50 solution of warm water and hydrogen peroxide, squirted into his mouth via a turkey baster - I'm sure this will be funny to us SOMEDAY), and I went to the vet to pick up some Vitamin K tablets, which he has to take for three weeks, because D-Con is just warfarin, which thins the blood so the mice hemmorhage to death. How lovely.

But the good news is: my mother-in-law is feeling better and is home from the hospital, Darien is now better, our insurance is going to cover the damage I did to my mom's car, and Kernel will be fine.

Tonight is our final Civic Chorus concert of the season, then we're done until September. Our theme for Evening at the Opera is going to be Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro).

And now it's time for a cute baby picture!

It's comin' around again

Hormones suck. At least, I think it's hormones. I'm emotional, my chin is breaking out, and the awful insomnia has returned. Just like last time. Hopefully this time it won't lead to a horrible sinus infection.

Banks also suck. Today is payday, but does our bank balance show it? No! Of course it doesn't! I'm waiting for a call back from someone over there who'd better tell us where our paychecks (direct deposit) went. I think I'd better put some wine to chill in the fridge starting now. Good thing I bought that before our checking account got so empty!

Now that's customer service.

We ate at DiDonna's for my birthday, I ordered tomato basil soup along with my entree, knowing full well I'd never finish it, but it's worth it. It makes for a fantastic lunch the next day. It's the best tomato basil soup on earth, let me tell you. My sister in law is a server there, and she even labeled my soup for me.

Mama's little cookie monster

Because it's funnier in sequence. I give you Adam, in the throes of being spoiled by his grandma.

Mmmmm.

Yeah, that's a full case of my favorite wine. Twelve sumptuous bottles. Which makes me one happy mama. It's a wee bit blurry, and no - it's not because I drank one of those bottles already (I actually haven't had any yet), it's because my camera battery is just about kaput. Cheers!

In like a Lion

I don't know if you can really tell from the picture, but it's snowing like crazy out there. I tried to take a picture out the other window, so you can see the actual snowfall, but somehow it doesn't look as bad on the picture as it does looking out my window right now. Oh well.

Listening - a double dose!

This CD - "Wicked" Original 2003 Cast Recording - has taken top spot in my car. I think I'm obsessed with it! In a good way. I just finished reading the book upon which the musical was based. It all started when I got the latest Lorie Line book, Now and Then, for Christmas from my mom, and two pieces from "Wicked" are in it. I fell in love with the music with the first measure of "For Good".




I just LOVE this CD. "Trouble" by Ray Lamontagne. There aren't too many tunes on it I don't like! My favorite is "Shelter", but I also love "Trouble", "Narrow Escape" and "How Come". It's one of the few CDs I can listen to, front to back, without skipping any tracks or getting tired of it. A review done in O Magazine said at first she (I can't remember the singer who reviewed it) couldn't tell if the singer was male or female, white or black, and she liked that. I agree. If you liked the Amos Lee CD below, you'll love Ray.

Whee.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Jen!

1. Ideally, Jen should be stored on her side at a temperature of 55 degrees!
2. Jen has three eyelids.
3. Reindeer like to eat Jen.
4. Bees visit over three million flowers to make a single kilogram of Jen!
5. You can tell if Jen has been hard-boiled by spinning her. If she stands up, she is hard-boiled.
6. If you break Jen, you will get seven years of bad luck!
7. An average beaver can cut down Jen every year!
8. Astronauts get taller when they are in Jen.
9. Jen once lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest!
10. Jen can be found on a Cluedo board between the Library and the Conservatory!

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

C'mon, try it - it's uh.. fun. Sort of. OK, I admit it, I don't get out much.

If you need a laugh, go here: Stuff on my cat

I did another one, and this one's funnier:

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Your doula!

1. In her entire life, your doula will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
2. Twenty-eight percent of Microsoft's employees are your doula.
3. You should always store your doula in an airtight container in the fridge.
4. Olive oil was used for washing your doula in the ancient Mediterranean world!
5. Oranges, lemons, watermelons, pineapples and your doula are all berries.
6. Your doula is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature!
7. Your doula can fly at an average speed of fifteen kilometres an hour.
8. Plato believed that the souls of melancholy people would be reincarnated into your doula!
9. Pacman was originally called your doulaman.
10. In the Great Seal of the United States the eagle grasps 13 arrows and your doula.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Addictive

We've been having fun with this since the weekend:

Frvade

If you decide to try it, you MUST read the "Information" section first (and refer to it while trying to solve the puzzles), and you really should sign up for the Forums. I wouldn't have been able to solve most of them without the forums.

So far we've made it to Level 25. I'm ashamed to think of how many hours I've wasted playing this game, but once you start figuring out the puzzles, you don't want to stop.

First Socks of the New Year

I got these finished in January, but didn't get a picture taken until just now. This was my first attempt at making identical socks. Usually I just pick up the yarn and start knitting, with no regards to where I am in the colorway. They didn't turn out exactly right, but I'm pleased with them! These were made with Fortissima Colori Socka yarn, on size 1 Brittany needles. I picked up this yarn at Urban Girl, where the lovely and talented Katie from Sage Junction Yarns stocks some yarn and needles. Sage Junction is about 20 miles from here, so it is much easier to just drop by Urban Girl. However, that didn't stop mom and I from taking a little mini-road-trip out to Sage Junction this weekend! We picked up some coffee and went out there with the boys. I got a ball of Opal and two balls of Socka.

I now have one ball of Sockotta (#2 in the picture) on the needles right now, 2 balls of Opal (Elements #1076 and Lollipop #1012) , 2 balls of Socka #9074, and 6 balls of Magic Stripes all waiting to be made into socks. I'm also working on a gift for someone, but it's SECRET, so I'm not going to disclose any more!

What is Friend?

This morning, Cookie Monster sang this song on Sesame Street. It's one of my favorite Sesame Street songs, so I'm putting the lyrics here.


Sometime me think,
What is friend?
And me think,
Friend something very special.

A friend somebody to share your toys,
To stay with and to play with and to make a lot of noise,
To spin around until friend get dizzy,
And jump up and down until stomach get queasy,
And to sometimes tell stories to.
A friend somebody like you.

Sometimes me think,
What is friend?
And me think,
Friend something better than chocolate ice cream!

A friend somebody to take to park,
A buddy you can buddy with 'til it start getting dark,
To laugh and joke and hippity-hop it,
Or tickle and poke 'til friend tell you to stop it,
And me no think of any more.
Well maybe friend somebody
You give up last cookie for.

Listening

I first heard about this guy last week. I was watching ER, and they played this lovely, bluesy song at the end. The only phrase I caught from it was "seen it all before", so I immediately started looking for it online. Unfortunately, I had the lyric wrong, and listened to about two dozen songs with "heard it all before" somewhere in them, until it hit me that the lyric might actually have been "seen". Duh! I found it right away, then.

Ol' Gimp-eye

Yesterday I noticed a spot in my vision (right eye). It looks like when someone takes your picture with a flash camera, you know how that little spot stays there for a few minutes, then goes away? Well, it was there all day yesterday - and nobody took my picture. While eating dinner, I noticed a second one had popped up as well, so now there are two camera-flashes in my right eye.

So I decided to head to the eye institute this morning. They ran all kinds of tests - first an intraocular pressure test (not the air-puff one, the kind where they put the yellow numbing stuff in your eye and then TOUCH YOUR EYE with the little machine. TOUCH YOUR EYE!), then they dilated my eyes. I waited for a bit in the blinding lights of the dimly-lit waiting area, then the Good Doctor took me back and did an exam where he shined a light so bright into my eyes that I kept squinting, and when he was done, everything was green. He said my retina and cornea looked good, he couldn't find anything wrong. Except the pressure in my right eye was 24 and my left eye was 20. Normal is 10-21. So they did the visual field test. This is way fun if you've never had one. They put a patch over your eye (I couldn't resist saying "AARRRRR!!!"), then you look into this big white bowl-shaped thingie and focus on one orange light in the middle. Then little lights sparkle in your peripheral vision, and you click a button each time you see one. I passed with flying colors.

He suspected that while I don't have glaucoma, it could be the beginning stages of it in my right eye. So he gave me some drops to put in once a day, and I'm supposed to go back in a week to see how it's doing.

Here's the hilarious part. The drops are made from prostaglandins! Y'all know my job, and one of the substances I hate are prostaglandins. It's the stuff they put next to the cervix to get it to dilate. There are gentle ones, like Prepidil and Cervidil, and nasty ones like Cytotec. I've always said I will never let prostaglandins NEAR my body. And look - I'm now putting them in my EYE! MY EYE! (howl)

So, please say a little prayer for my gimp-eye, that it responds well to the drops, and that the pressure decreases. I really don't want to worry my pretty little head about going blind this early in life!

Boo!

This is my archenemy, my nemesis. The Black House Spider. I friggin' hate him. Them.

We've been having some major spider problems - there must be a nest or something, right outside our front door. I'd been killing around 7 spiders a day, most don't make it past the entryway. Yesterday when the neighbor girl came over (we take her to school in the mornings), they were waiting and a few scurried right in. Little buggers! So, tired of being held prisoner in my own home (afraid to open the front door), I ran to Home Depot and found some super-duper insecticide and went to war on those suckers. LOL! There's tons of little (and big) spider carcasses outside my front door now. I'm leaving them there for Halloween. Tee-hee!

Yesterday Mason had his 12 month check-up and vaccinations. He cried. He weighs 21 lbs. 13oz. (65%), and is 31" tall (90%). I thought he would weigh more than that, I was thinking around 24 pounds! He just seems so big to me, and is solidly in 18 month size clothes. That's typical of my boys though - they're always in one size larger than their age, because they're so tall! Someday all three of my boys will be towering over me.

Uh, hi!

I've seriously neglected my blog. And I really had no intention of doing so! Really.

My computer died and just got a new one, and my photo sharing stuff is GONE gone gone. I have some pics of the boys I want to share though!

Here's the three of them on our lawn. Mason isn't really that huge, he's just further forward than the other two. I was taking pics of their feet in black & white for a collage in our bedroom. More to share soon!!

Listening

This is Jem, my new favorite artist/CD. You can listen to the entire CD at her website, which I think is GENIUS, because when you're poor like me, you can afford to get maybe 6 CDs a year. I am so leery of buying new CDs just in case there's only one good song on there and the rest suck. But when you can listen to the whole CD, then you know you're making a good investment. Hear that, record companies?? So I bought it this week.

Monday Darien has his "kindergarten roundup" in the late afternoon, we'll meet the teachers and see the classrooms. Monday night I have to drive 100 miles to sing with Civic Chorus, I will get back late.. ugh. Tuesday I get my Mirena! I can't wait to be infertile! Let's hope my cervix cooperates, otherwise Deb won't do it and I'll have to go back when I get my period. And who knows when THAT will be?

Our internet access is majorly sucking (we have wireless). And the ISP is not really trying to figure out what the problem is, so today, we are switching providers.

Fire-crotch.

Well, I am now a balding redhead. No, I didn't take a picture.

Here's the story.. last year I purchased Allure magazine's Beauty Box, as I do most years. In it was a hilighting kit - PERFECT for me - it was light blonde hilights (Clairol Natural Dimensions) for dark-medium blonde or light brown hair. Which is what I have.

I decided last night to do the hilighting. I've never hilighted before. I started to follow the instructions, but by the time it looked "done", there was still a TON of color in the bottle, so I thought I'd use a little more. I did some under-layers and such. I waited 25 minutes (the box said 30). I washed it out. My hair was the same color as a Barbie! Bright yellow-white. But only in PATCHES. The rest of it was a decent blonde.

So this morning I called the Clairol hotline and asked what to do. In order to get some semblance of normal, I needed to first re-color it red, then dark blonde, to get an auburn-y color (if I did just the dark blonde/light brown, it could turn green or purple.. NOT good). So I did. In the shower, my hair came out in handfuls.

I still have plenty of hair left, I just hope more doesn't fall out. And I really can't believe I have red hair. Dan says I have a "hot Donna" thing going on now (from That 70's Show). Although she's blonde now, and she looked so much better red.

*sigh*

Lesson learned: ALWAYS FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! Too subtle is better than... well, THIS.