Last August I went

rode the train to Milwaukee to meet/visit several Ravelry friends for a few days. In addition to the knitters and some family members that I was expecting to meet, I got to meet Darwin, a family member I wasn't expecting to meet. Darwin and Srknittykitty have a deal worked out where he makes sure her meals are safe to eat in exchange for her being his main source of transportation.

 

After lunch and some sight seeing, we went to listen to a band and immediately Darwin became an enthralled groupie.

 

Darwin started fussing about not having t-shirt sleeves to roll things up in and how he really needed one if he was going to be hanging out with the band. Srknittykitty reminded him that he already had a job with her, and really wasn't cut out to be a band roadie; especially since the amps would most likely squash him flat. He settled for hanging out on stage for the first set and then was enticed away with the prospect of new foods for dinner.

Since I was there over a weekend, and the friend I was staying with is a priest and a knitter, a couple of us went to the parish she is serving on Sunday morning. While we were waiting for church to start, Darwin and Srknittykitty introduced me to their friend Astrid, explained to me that she was getting kicked out of the park she had been living in, and the three of them were wondering if there was any chance she could come live in my garden, the plants on my deck, or maybe even inside the house where she would be safe from the birds. I told them I would have to pray about it during church, though I did voice a few concerns about her manners, given I had already spent the previous day with Darwin, watching and learning all about his exploits.
All three of them assured me that she was very well mannered and the two of them promised to sit quietly between us during the service.

 

The service included a baptism, and since they couldn't see very well from the pew, Astrid and Darwin asked afterwards if they could get a closer look at the font.

 

Darwin said something about how much he missed swimming in the ocean, and how that looked like in would do in a pinch, but Srknittykitty grabbed him just in time, while Astrid dove to the floor to dissociate herself from such inappropriate activities!

 

Since I didn't want Astrid to end up living the dangerous life on a hot patch of asphalt street corner, or being encouraged to get into who knows what kind of trouble by hanging out with a skinny-dipping penguin, I decided she had better come home with me. I did let them have another picture taken together, and have promised both of them, and all the knitters that Astrid and I will come back to visit again. (Though the two of us are also hoping they will come see us too!)

Guess what? You blog readers will get to see more of Astrid too!

 

Conversation at

Alice's Shop today, between the proprietor and an Italian customer, "Well, at one time the shop was run by a sheep, but now it is an old goat."

 

It was a fun spot to pop in for a bit and look around. Well, and maybe find a thing or two to take home with me.

Day 3 (aka Sunday)

Day 2 (aka Saturday)

Day 1

I know it has been rather quite around here.

Last week (the last week of April) I was away on a trip, which turned out to be much, much harder than I had ever imagined. (Well, not the trip itself I suppose, but stuff I had to deal with there.) Fortunately the trip was to a place where I have a dear friend who held my hand and let me vent, rant and rage, and cry. Mind you, ranting and raging isn't really something I do often, but i certainly did a lot of it last week. Unfortunately I now foresee that there might be more in the future at some point; at least this time I guess it won't come up on me as such a surprise. (Funny thing is that it didn't surprise Hubband so much, or a few other people.) As it happened I also had some, but very limited access to the Internets while on my trip, mostly just email and all of it was on a computer that didn't belong to me, thus making it very difficult, if not impossible, to do any posting here while I was away.
Any hows, now I have a very busy rest of the month ahead of me/us, between getting ready for a very important college graduation (well, important to DTE and the rest of our family at least), having both D's home (one for a bit over a week before she goes to her summer internship and the other for the summer before she starts her "year-long, post-graduate thing while I decide on graduate school/what do I do next"), getting ready for a real-live vacation with Hubband at the end of the month, and of course, all the regular stuff that I do. Oh, and due to some fall-out from my trip last week I have extra stuff I need to make arrangements for. Le sigh. Never fear, I/we will manage to get through; all in all we have made it through much worse in life.
In other exciting news around the Coffee Yarn Household, we have an other new appliance. Sunday afternoon I went to the basement to get something from the freezer and noticed a medium sized puddle under and around the water heater, so by 2 PM Monday afternoon we had a new one installed and heating water for me. (Me, since by 2:15 PM I was delivering Hubband to the airport.)
I have finished knitting from April to report (well, that is if you all aren't horrible bored with knitting content) and of course there are lots of green things growing about here as well as some bulbs have bloomed and a few other flowers are all decked out in their spring finery. Sadie had her annual spring "find something really, really gross/wonderful and disgustingly smelly/lovely to roll in" last week while I was gone (hopefully that means she has gotten it out of her system for the year) so that was a plus for me, and Oribel is doing her "I really, really need to go outside into the sun! Wait! What is this wind crap? I need in! Oh look! It is sunny I need out! Wind? I need in!" thing that results in her having to stay inside after about two or three in and outs. Of course that results in the "I am not happy in so I shall try to dig through every door in the house to find a way outside."
OK, so for right now I need to go do "stuff" but I will do my best to get back to you soon with some pictures of the yard, flowers, animals, and knitting if you all want to see it. I might even mention my vacation again.

In the last couple of weeks

since I have been here, life has gone on and stuff has been happening, even though the blog has seen no evidence of it. Or perhaps the lack of blogging proves that life has been happening?
Anyway, Hubband and I had a wonderful time planning and fixing dinner together on the fourth, and then watching our movie together. The next evening, our Christmas socks made their public debut. (Of course Hubband made sure several people noticed our matching socks at his work party.)

 

Another pair of socks have been started, finished, and delivered.
Pattern: Broadripple
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Fixation
Started: Dec. 1 Finished: Dec. 13

 

Sock count: 17/12+2 (I didn't have the right color of yarn for these, so I bought some, thus the +2)

 

Made for: My younger sister, who absolutely loves them and says they fit like a glove.

 

A co-worker of Hubband's had a new baby, so we all know what that means.

 

A couple of coasters were also made and delivered when I got home, another hat was started, and I do believe a pair of socks will be started this weekend.
In addition to knitting, there has been traveling to Idaho (before the blizzard hit here, thank goodness!), visiting with a few friends and my sister (delivery of socks, obviously), some general stuff taken care of there, and traveling back home with my dad in tow. He is here to visit and spend Christmas with us.
Next up comes catching up on getting ready for Christmas, the DTs coming home next week, and general life stuff. Blogging may or may not resume on a regular basis.

I know,

where are the hat pictures? Well, you need wait no longer, here they is! (Nicely modeled by the owner of said hat.)

 

Pretty little intertwined knit cables on a purled background, all on account of reading the pattern correctly (after a bit of a mis-read in Round Three).

 

With the use of a life-line and realization that if you move the beginning row marker over, you have to move all the markers in the row over before you decide you have one too many stitches, beautiful decreases and a star/flower shape happen. Then with continued decreasing, poof! it is all finished and on someone's head.

 

(Unblocked, but that was OK with her. I am not sure she actually took it off for over 24 hours after it was finished. Maybe she took it off to sleep, but if so, she put it right back on as soon as she woke up. It is so nice to have someone who appreciates hand knit items, not every one who knits is so lucky. I am extra lucky to have several people wiling to indulge me.)

Tuesday I got to engage in some cat wrangling and take Oribel in to the vet for a check-up. She weighs in at seven pounds, six ounces and Dr. E was was very impressed with the fact that "She is solid muscle!" and diagnosed her as being "excessively healthy".

Tomorrow's big plans include a couple of errands and house cleaning during the day, but Hubband has agreed to indulge me with letting me pick pick what movie we will watch after dinner. I made sure we had this one show up in the mailbox in time for the big event.
(BTW, blog posts will probably continue to be erratic for the next several weeks. I am heading out next week to bring my dad here for a Christmas visit. I'll be gone for a bit and I think a lot of you know he doesn't have a computer so I only get Internet connection when we go to the cyber-cafe. Of course after we get back I will be finishing up with getting ready for college kids to come home, keeping dad busy helping around here, and the like. I'll try to entertain you at least once a week, and we can always hope for more.)

I only have a couple of minutes

before I need to dash off north to return DTE to school, but I just wanted to give you a quick Happy New Year again, and let you know there will be more recycling soon.
(Oh, and some finished hat pictures!)

The company was awesome!

Yesterday I got a phone call that had me flapping my arms in excitement (not that there was anyone to see me besides the dogs and cat) and this morning I got a follow-up call that resulted in a drive of about 140 miles round trip for a lunch date. It was totally worth the drive and day away from home.
(My oldest brother is a professional truck driver based out of SLC and and his current trip put him in my "neighborhood".)

Drive-by road trip shots

As I fall ever more behind, you get more drive-by post/shots. Maybe someday I'll catch up with my life. (Right. Who am I kidding.)
Anyways, the first weekend in August (I know, two weeks ago) I drove up to see the closing night of the latest play DTE was working on for the summer. The set was great, the singing and dancing was great, the sound quality and mixing was excellent! (Want to guess who was running the sound board?) The play was Saturday night, she had to strike the set on Sunday, so I had the day to myself. What is a person to do but go hang out at the lake with their camera and knitting?

The water wasn't as busy as the last time we were there.

 

(The swimming wasn't either. It was a lot warmer the last time too.)

 

But there was evidence of a lot of activity on the rocks;

 

I added to the rock activity by hanging out on them with the well-traveled socks I worked on the last time I was "Up North,"

 

The socks and I enjoyed the lake,

 

played with the camera,

 

and introduced the "in-progress" socks to the joys of the water.

 

We hung out there for awhile, then wandered around to play with the camera some more and see what else there was.

 

There were dogs; I wonder what Simon and Sadie would think of the lake? Oh, wait, I know. They would be thrilled with all the people to pet them and cover with basset slobber.

 

There were also some gulls.

 

Lots of gulls.

 

I don't know what possessed them to think I wanted them to stand on the roof of my car. (Maybe it was the fries I was eating while leaning on my bumper?)

 

After the snack, the socks, camera, and I enjoyed watching "extreme unicycle" practicing.

 

Well, now I am only two weeks behind; with any luck I will get us all caught up on children, visitors, socks, cats, gardens, and anything else I can think of in the next few days. (Don't be holding your breath though. I wouldn't want anyone turning blue out there.)