A Wonderful Day

Yesterday was World Wide Knitting in Public Day. However, I had promised my daughter that I would take her to the Second Saturday at the Crocker Museum. This was more important than spending my day knitting...although I knew I would make it up later in the day.

We carpooled there with our good friends. The weather was beautiful: perfect cumulus clouds in the clear blue sky and a soft breeze that complemented the pleasantly warm temperature. Very unusual nice weather for this time of year.

The event was in the bottom floor of the Crocker Museum. The volunteer that helped us gave us each a board with paper taped to it. My daughter and her friend had a great time creating their artwork using tempera paint and Art Stix. My friend and I also created some art pieces.

I had forgotten how good it felt to draw, I have never been good at drawing people and faces; however, I have always enjoyed creating abstract art. The kids asked me what I was drawing. I guess the term "abstract" went over their heads because my daughter kept asking me what I was drawing. She finally agreed to wait until I was finished with my masterpiece.

After our art experience, the kids allowed us to wander the museum. I wish kids appreciated those types of places more...the Crocker is filled to the brim with the most beautiful artwork. This, too, I forgot. It was so relaxing to look at each painting, each sculpture, and discover what the artist was trying to represent in the moments during that piece's construction. I could have spent the rest of the day there.

We went home after a few hours. It was exhausting, but I felt energized just the same.

My daughter and her best friend have known each other since they were 2. When we spend time together, they are inseparable and this gets more pronounced the older they get...they used to bicker over little things but now they are like a pair of twins, who don't look alike and have different mothers but love each other so much that neither of our families can imagine lives without each other. Our families have become close in the years of our children's friendship....so it was easy to understand why the kids have a lot of trouble leaving each other's houses. We often wish that we lived closer so that we don't meet the resistance we always do when the other has to go home.

They eventually left (with the expected resistance) and I took Pippin out for his walk. I thought my day was almost over and I could rest. My daughter wasn't ready; she wanted to take Pippin out after dinner. I agreed, wanting to cultivate her growing desire to spend time with the pup and our newfound friends at the park. We walked there and met our friends. We also met new friends, which we often do because Pippin loves to meet new dogs. I think we've made more friends since we've adopted him; I don't remember knowing this many people that I enjoy spending time with since college. Our walk was uneventful. When the skies started getting darker, we headed home.

Last night after the kids and pup went to bed, I reflected on the day and it felt nice. I may have missed knitting in public, but I spent time with friends and my daughter. This is time better spent.

Pippin versus the Friar

I have decided to accept the fact that Pippin may not really like my brother. My brother, Brother Mary Isaiah of the Dominican Order, aka Uncle Mark, just left after 2 days with us. We always enjoy spending time with him and I was looking forward to introducing the newest member of our family.

When Mark first arrived, I expected some resistance from the pup. After all, this is his territory and a new person was "invading". I took the family (minus my husband who was at work - luckily for him, haha) to the park. There, they seemed to get along and I was optimistic. The drive home was uneventful.

Back inside the house, however, the barking started. I tried everything the trainer said to do: ignore him (how the heck do you do this without going deaf), having my brother act like a bear (he does this very well), tying him to me (he was supposed to be bored to death just watching me clean house...yeah right). I finally had to resort to attaching his leash to a pole in the back. When he didn't bark for a while, I brought him back in. He behaved for a while and finally went to bed without any more barking episodes.

Unfortunately, this did not last throughout Mark's whole stay. It got to the point where I would hear Pippin growl and I would cringe. We were all lucky that the weather allowed us to go out; I think I would have had to keep Pippin tied up outside the whole time my brother was here.

Today, I wanted to go to 2 shops on the Yarn Shop Hop Contest. According to Mapquest, it should have only taken me less then an hour to travel to them both. I expected us to be home within 3 hours. Because of the curvy road and that I didn't have a blasted map of my own city, we were out for 5 hours. Poor Pippin was in his crate for 5 whole hours. I could have cried.

I had to drive Mark to the train station with the kids in tow. I felt so bad about Pippin being alone almost the whole day that I took him with us. I put him on my lap as I drove. My brother was next to me and I was amazed that Pippin didn't protest. Not even a little possessive growl.

I mentioned this out loud, and my daughter piped, "Maybe Pippin is glad that Uncle Mark is leaving." Ahhh the blatant honesty of kids.

Kinnearing Kids Part 3: Uncle Mark's Visit

My brother is visiting us for a few days. He is back in California after being stationed in Washington D.C. for about a year as part of his training to become a priest in the Dominican Order. My daughter was very excited and had been looking forward to seeing Uncle Mark. In contrast, my son, who had only seen him once since his birth, did not know what to make of the man dressed in clergy's garb that momma hugged at the Amtrak station...I could see the little gears in his head spinning - that's not daddy...who is that stranger that momma is hugging....hmmm don't know if I can give him a smile yet.


My brother is training to be a priest in the Dominican Order. This will be his final academic year before his final vows. In a week, he will be heading out to Alaska (!).


The little guy and his uncle soon became quick friends though, partly because of my brother's amicable personality, and largely because of my daughter's obvious affection for him. Yippee for me because then I was able to take a picture of all of them:

Pippin, on the other hand, is having trouble adjusting to having a stranger in the house. No matter what I did, he kept barking at my brother. Yikes! Perhaps an outing at the park would do the trick and make everyone friends.

We went to a new park in a new housing development a few miles away. It had 2 play structures, one for my daughter and one for my son. Also, there was a big grassy area where I was able to walk Pippin. I brought my camera in case any photo opportunities came up. Yeah, I know, I was being optimistic, but hey, a mom's gotta try.

After a few missed shots, I realized that I had to resort to kinnearing, and even then...

He finally acquiesced (not too happily...oh well). His sister made up for his lack of enthusiasm.

Facebook is saving me money

It keeps me from staying on Ravelry, where I stalk people's destashes and covet other people's yummy yarn.

That's it for now...back to Facebook.

Please, not my stash!

Last Thursday started out like an normal day...well, almost normal. It was my daughter's last day of the school year and she was more excited than she is most school mornings. And I admit, I had already gotten it into my head that the year was over, so I was more scattered than I usually am. We were about to jump in the car with 5 minutes remaining for me to get her to school in time, with her swimsuit under her clothes, and she remembered at the last minute that she needed an extra shirt. Aaaargh.

So I finally get her to school, I drive home, make sure that husband has food to bring to work for lunch, and make the boy his breakfast. Kiss husband before he heads to work, got puppy and boy ready for morning walk. As I walked the stroller with leash in hand, I thought about all the errands I had to do that day: go to Costco and restock on some supplies and fill up on gas, make a grocery list and go to store for food, drop off clothes and toys at the Salvation Army, go to park, go to pet store, go to Post Office, and pick up my daughter early. I could some after the walk, and the rest after I pick up the girl. Not a problem.

Well, my son must have been cutting another tooth because I only got to make a grocery list and go to Costco. He was making a fuss, so I decided to do the rest of my errands after I picked up my daughter.

The time came to pick her up. I popped my son in his carseat and buckled him up. I threw Pippin in the car in my daughter's carseat. I buckled myself in, pushed the garage door opener and proceeded to back out....

...too early. I heard a crash....ooooh no.... I jumped out of my car. OH CR-RAP!!!!! The car backed into the garage door and pushed it out of its track. My first thought was, "My husband is going to kill me..." then it was, "oh no, how am I going to pick up my daughter? " and finally, "how much of my stash am I going to have to sell to make up the damage?"

I looked at the warped garage door, tried to punch it into place. It didn't budge. I called my husband. I said, "Honey, please don't get mad...but..." and I explained what happened. Miraculously, he said nothing about selling any of my stash...

I contacted the garage door company that had helped us before with our garage door (what can I say, the house was built in the 70s). I didn't even ask how much it may have to cost. The rep said that someone would be out to our house to look at the damage within the hour. I looked through my stash and briefly calculated what I could sell. Even with all of my Handmaiden, Fleece Artist, Hedgehog Fibres, Malabrigo, and (sniff) Wollmeise skeins, there was no way that I had $1000 worth of yarn. Goodbye new bed...Goodbye yarn store splurges...Goodbye summer fun. Mom goofed and there would be no more fun for a while.

My husband came home with my daughter. I heard a banging. Was he really trying to fix it? Then I heard the garage door...he managed to force it back onto its track. It opened but would not close. I apologized again profusely and told him that I would sell my yarn to pay for the damage. He didn't seem concerned...does the man not worry about anything? Perhaps it was because he knew that it wasn't his yarn on the line. So unfair...

So the garage door guy came and said that he could put a new metal frame on the bottom of the door to straighten it out. Unfortunately, he said, they don't make our garage door anymore, so he could not replace the plate. He said that he could do it that day....did I want an estimate.

I braced myself...numbers beat around my head. Please don't be more than $500...please please please don't make me sell all of my beautiful yarn!!!!

So he says to me, "There is the charge to come out and the labor cost...it will come out to $127.23.

God really does love me...

Katje's Frog

So I ripped out my Katje...all of it. And I am not sorry...

I was going to add more rows to both sleeves and the body. I had started ripping out the bind off in the body a few weeks ago and placing the stitches onto a circular needle. Gah! it was taking forever doing that in seed stitch. F O R E V E R

I threw it in the closet, with the sincere intention to finish it. However, it taunted me, there in the bottom of my clear knitting bag. I couldn't take it anymore and decided that it would be faster to frog the whole darn thing and reknit it.

I'm going to take up Chantel's suggestion and make it a short sleeve hoodie.

Space saver or...

a reason to buy more yarn? I bought a box of SpaceSavers from Costco yesterday. Those things are amazing!! The commercials did not lie and now I feel more in control of my space.

My husband joked that I should put my yarn in them... I am seriously considering it. For one thing, my stash bins are overflowing. Another, I can buy more yarn...