Isn't it Friday YET??

Fiscal quarter end today. Busy. Drama. That's all I've got to say about that.

Making great progress on the shawl. I have 5 more rows to go in the last pattern repeat, then the edging row & binding off. Of course, then I have to figure out how to block it without lace blocking wires. . . Ralph has a spool of stainless steel wire which I might have to abscond with.

Speaking of the shawl, it now has a new name. The pattern is called "Monterey Shawl," but I have decided to call mine the "Witchiepoo Shawl" because it's so similar to her hair color. I always did like "H. R. Pufnstuff." Jimmy was so hot ;-) Although Freddie was so very annoying that I think I would have just let the witch have him.

Ralph brought Neighbor D's birds over to our house yesterday. It's much easier for us to make sure they have food & water if they are here rather than trying to remember to go over to his house. I was so caught up in taking care of Sadie that I quite forgot the birds so I'm glad he thought to bring them over.

Speaking of petsitting, Neighbor J is back & his cats survived their stint in our care. I did find out their names though: the white cat is Guy, and the calico is Bunny. They do rather look like rabbits so I can see where she got her name.

Well, it's late (for an early-bird like me, anyway!) and it's hot in here, so I think it's time to scrounge some dinner & go to bed.

Just a short post

Had a laugh on the way home today. KRTH is giving away $50 gas cards. The DJ started a new song, then did a promo for the morning show saying they had fun, information, and gas. Then the lyrics started: "Well, it's been building up inside of me for oh, I don't know how long. . . "

We've got Neighbor D's dog, Sadie, over here. Hali is not getting along with her too well. Sadie licks Hali's face, which Hali *does not* like. So she growls. Sadie gets all submissive and licks even more, which makes Hali growl more, which induces more licking. . . .

Vacation time coming up soon! I can hardly wait, even though we still don't know for sure what we are going to do or where we are going to go. I'm sure we'll figure out something.

Off to get some dinner now.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog

Hooray! We have a computer again! For those among the Teeming Millions who didn't know, BOTH our computers crashed within a week of each other. Ralph was able to restore mine today, although we lost a *lot* of files including all my pictures. Yikes! We did save some of Ralph's, and thus we've got this shot of a blue-footed booby which we photographed at the Sea Life Park on Oahu.

Today was a very dramatic day at work. Lots of ups & downs. We had a buyer who was supposed to sign loan docs last week. Told escrow he wouldn't sign, that he was going to cancel. After talking to sales & his lender he changed his mind, said he'd sign. Then he wasn't available. Then he said OK, but by that point the notary had another appointment & couldn't get out there until very late. So the notary drove from Temecula to Paramount (that's 75 miles, folks) to sign him up at 10:30 pm. He refused to sign. Then we tried to get him to sign this morning. More drama. Had to have changes done to the loan documents. Escrow requested them at 2:00, didn't get them until after 5:00. The notary is driving out again tonight for a 10:00 pm signing. We will see what happens. . . and did I mention it's fiscal quarter end?

Oh, and of course there was the earthquake this morning, too. 5.8 centered in Chino Hills; produced a goodly rumbling shake followed by some rather fun back & forth swaying in Ontario. First time I've ever been on anything other than the ground floor during a quake (our office is on the fourth). I did enjoy it; it's been a long time since we've had a quake strong enough to feel.

Well, it's getting late & I haven't had dinner yet. Better go, I guess.

Halfway through the weekend

Neighbor D is back in the hospital. Looks pretty bad this time; his friend Nurse M thinks he will be in the hospital at least a week & then will need to go to a convalescent home. Nurse M & his partner R will be taking care of the household things; Ralph & I are taking care of D's pets.

Ralph is having a D & D game today. Normally I make good my escape for those, but just don't feel like going anywhere today. I have lots to keep myself entertained--books, spinning, knitting, playing with the GGs, the camera--so it should be a good day. I am going to bake a cake for the guys in a few minutes. The game starts in 2 hours which will just give it enough time to cool enough for icing before they get here. I wanted to make a black magic cake, however earlier this morning I discovered that a) we are out of baking soda and b) ants like sugar. Fortunately I have a cake mix in the cupboard & that will work out just fine. Even if it's not black magic or even chocolate of any sort.



Two more shots from the OC Fair. The top one is of a pie server that looked like a little dachsund with a very long face. I just thought it was really cute. I couldn't really get a good picture of it though. This one turned out the best I think. It was part of a collection of dachsund-related knickknacks. That's one of the weird things to me about the Fair. They have competitions for "collections." Well, geeze, it's not like the people made the items, it's just things they own. Doesn't feel like something worth judging. But then again, no one asked me ;-)




The second picture is looking down the glass display of treats in the candy competition. They really looked yummy! The only thing is, it's fine & dandy to have displays & see who got ribbons, but it doesn't really mean anything when you can't taste them & see if you agree with the judges. I mean, I can look at the artwork, quilts, knitted items, etc. and say "Yeah, I like this" or "What were the judges thinking?" But when it's something being judged for its taste, well . . . just kind of . . . not frustrating exactly, nor disappointing, but. . . I guess I just don't feel as "involved."

Shawl update

I have just finished repeat #6 of the shawl. According to the pattern, I should now do one edge row & then bind off. It seems so short, though, and I really want a long shawl. On the other hand, who knows how much it will stretch when I block it? Still, I would rather have it too long than too short, and I have enough yarn for at least two or three more repeats, so I think I'll keep going.

For some reason, if I am on Ralph's sign-on, I don't get a preview of the pictures in my folder when I go to upload them, so I don't know what I'll get until it's loaded. I chose this one simply because it was #72 (in itty bitty glasses, ha ha). This is a blossom on a cotton plant, taken at the Orange County Fair. I found it interesting that the plants had both white flowers and pink ones too. This is not a particularly good shot; the one I took of a pink blossom came out better but I'm keeping this one up because I cannot resist the lure of 72.

Pictures

Big Sis got her new camcorder today! I haven't read her blog yet, but I bet she told all about it. She seemed very excited when she e-mailed me earlier.

Thought I'd post several pictures today:

Isn't this adorable? It was an entry in the cake decorating division at the Orange County Fair. Can you believe it only took third place? I really thought it ought to have won. I really don't know what they use for judging criteria, but what can you expect from an event that once gave a first-place knitting ribbon to a woven sweater.

A small garden display at the OC Fair. I really ought to crop this one a bit, I think. Check out the sexy guy in the Utilikilt. Sorry ladies, you can't have him--that's my husband, Ralph :-)

A water buffalo at the OC Fair. I love the look on his face. Very dignified.

I call this shot "I once caught a fish thiiiiiis big." The colors really came out well, I think. Too bad he (she?) is facing away from the camera. Personally I wouldn't stand that close to the edge if I were perched on top of a four-story building. Mind you, the chances of me perching on a four-story building are pretty slim.

Last one for today. A close-up of yellow lantana growing in one of the planters at work. I have an edited version in my flickr account that I really like; I turned the main clump of flowers to black & white while leaving the rest in color, then put a dark matte around it. Check it out!

dumb guy on the freeway

Can't believe I forgot to tell this tale to the Teeming Millions. I was driving home from work the other day, and traffic was a bit heavy. Most of the cars were moving along at about twenty MPH or so, but there was a car in the next lane that was going at maybe 10, really holding up the traffic behind him & a big open stretch ahead of him. As I passed by I glanced over and saw why--he was looking out the side window *taking pictures with both hands on the camera.* How stupid can you get? "Gawrsh, I know the law says we have to have hands-free cell phones, but it don't say nuthin' 'bout cameras!"

Today's picture--yup, from the OC County Fair--is of a group of Polynesian dancers. As you can see, not all of them were Polynesian. The white guy was very good, but just didn't look right. Too thin & lanky compared to the others. Still, it was nice to see a bit of cross-culture going on, and as I said he was a good dancer. We only watched a bit of the show, as we had already been at the fair for about 5 hours and were really ready to have some dinner & go home.

More OC Fair pictures. First off, we have this really cool freakin' crocodile metal sculpture. The speech bubble that you can just see the corner of says "say cheese!" which as I may have mentioned was the theme this year. Isn't he a happy looking fellow? He was in the visual arts section of the fair. There were a couple exhibits in there that I liked in addition to this one, but most of the pictures I just thought "meh." There was a photo there that I really liked; a black & white close up of a pair of obviously old woman hands, holding a photo of a herself as a young woman. It was really well done and surprisingly touching.



Next up is from the home crafts section, in the "holiday of your choice themed table setting." You need to click & look at this one in full size to get the full effect. It's entitled "Captain Blackbeard's Valentine's Dinner." Loved the purple cloth & fancy candles, as well as the novelty of using a pirate theme for Valentine's rather than Hallowe'en.

Not much else to write about today. Had lunch with GF, who is still at the Irvine office although not for long, and KF who is at the South building. I had a very nice piece of tilapia, rice, and some chopped up apples that were NOT baked into a pie. Oh, and a big glass of milk. I've been trying really hard to cut down on the soda and I think that may be why I feel so tired lately--cutting down on soda means less caffeine, too. We mostly bitched about work & talked about GF's pending move to Ohio. She's found a place for her horse to live but not for herself, and she's still looking for work too. Pretty scary.

Made a pineapple upside down cake the other day. It was pretty good, although I used a mix so of course it wasn't as good as a scratch cake. Still, it was quick & easy & satisfied the strong craving that I was having. I just may have a wee bit before bedtime.

Got 'em!!

Ha! I remembered the camera today and got a few shots of the turkey buzzards. I think these two came out pretty well. They are very large birds; for those of you among the Teeming Millions who are unfamiliar with them, they get to be more than two feet tall with a six foot wingspan. Or, to put it in more perspective, these birds were sitting at the top of a four story building when I took the pictures. Just look at how large they look in the long shot!









Forgot to mention, Ralph & I were trying to figure out what you would call a group of baby fish. Kittens & puppies are a litter, chicks are a brood. Ralph finally came up with the perfect name: a pre-school.








Speaking of Ralph, he brought Greek food for lunch from my favorite Greek restaurant. Not just for me, but enough to share with MP, VG and CE too, with a little leftover for me to eat at work tomorrow. Isn't he a sweetheart?










More on the fair: one of my favorite displays was this ratatouille garden. The soup pots contain the vegetables needed to prepare the dish, while the nearby sign tells you how to make it. Seems really easy, although I wish it had specified the herbs. Still, I just may have to give it a try someday since I do like ratatouille. They also had a display with peppers & tomatoes growing in a barbeque, with a recipe for fresh salsa. That amused me, as the comic strip "Overboard" recently had Capt. Crowe, Charlie & Louie the dog walking past a barbeque that someone had converted to a garden. Capt. Crowe pointed it out, saying how clever it was. Charlie responded, "Creative" while Louie was thinking "Sacrilige!"










And of course, the baby animals always are a crowd pleaser. This is a baby angora goat. Angoras produce spinnable fiber called mohair, which is a very nice fiber indeed. This little guy was all covered in wood shavings from his bedding; glad I don't have to groom him :-) His sire was at the fair too, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of him at all. Young angora goats have very curly locks, but it straightens as they grow up. Kid mohair is very popular amongst some spinners, although the one time I tried it I was disappointed with how poorly the seller had "cleaned" and dyed it. Maybe it's normal to sell it that way, but what I had was greasy, full of dander, and went from being fire-engine red to what basically looked like what's left when the ice melts in the last few drops of fruit punch.

The birds--they mock me so.

When I got to work today, there were two large turkey buzzards roosting on the corner of the building. When I was leaving work today, there was a crow in the short tree next to my car. He didn't fly away even as I was getting into the car. You will notice that I have not posted a photo of either the buzzards or the crow. Why? Because for the first time in days I did not bring the camera to work.

You will notice, however, that I have a picture of a hooded oriole. I took this after I got home & was able to go in the house & grab the camera. He was roosting in a neighbor's tree. I got three shots: one with his head turned away so he looks headless, one very blurry, and this one here.

Went to the OC County Fair yesterday. It was kind of a last-minute thing. We'd thought vaguely of going, but hadn't really decided until 10:30 in the morning when we just said, "Hey, let's go!" I had a very nice time & will post pictures & comments throughout the week. I think I liked the gardens best. There didn't seem to be as much livestock as in previous years, and the "home crafts" section--which is normally my favorite--was a little sparse. Still, we spent about 5 hours there so we must have been having fun :-) This year's theme was "say cheese" and there was a very large sandsculpture in progress right where we entered the fair. It was of a mouse-infested camera and had pop-up animatronic mice as well as the sand ones. There were also some sand mice & cheese around the camera. Today's pic is one of the "mice on the side" portions of the sculpture. The people in the background will give you an idea of how big this was.

A thought about knitting lace

Even with a lifeline, it's astoundingly difficult to get 364 stitches back on the needles. On the other hand, frogging down to the lifeline did give me a chance to spread out the shawl & get a better idea of the current length & width. The paperback in the photo is for perspective only. If I follow the pattern instructions, I only need to do one more repeat of the pattern (plus the two rows I just frogged), one edging row, then bind off. However, I really do want it to be longer so I think I will do at least two or three more pattern repeats. I've used 430 yards at this point and have 600 yards left, so I don't have to worry about running out halfway through the bindoff even if I do add extra repeats.

Quiet Day

Didn't do much today. Started out with breakfast at Mimi's (quiche lorraine & a lemon muffin for me; bacon, eggs, & a spice muffin for Ralph) then went to see "The Dark Knight." *Very* good movie. I won't give anything away other than to say if you are familiar with the Dark Knight version of Batman comic books/graphic novels than you will not be disappointed. Came home again, played with the dogs & have been knitting for a bit. And that pretty much sums up the day.

Forgot to mention, got the results back on last week's tests. Mammo was "perfectly normal" as was the hip shot of the bone density. Spine is showing some bone loss, so I need to up my calcium intake & exercise more. Since I don't see how I could possibly exercise any less I suppose in theory both of those should be easy to do.

The weekend!

Knit just under two rows on the shawl today. Got to where there were only a couple repeats left, looked at the clock, saw I had just enough time to finish the row before it was time to go in to work--and of COURSE the next set between the row markers was off by one stitch. Sigh. Wasn't able to fix it before work, and haven't tried since getting home.

Neighbor D came over for dinner tonight. He is still very thin & didn't eat much, but he took some leftovers home for later. It's better that he eat small bits frequently than try to eat a couple big meals. Ralph cooked fish & shrimp, and we had a salad with it.

Had an amusing moment today. CR brought nachos for the whole office (YUM!) and in the afternoon MR was wondering if there were any left. HB told him "The cheese is in the crockpot" but what I *heard* was "There's Jesus in the crockpot."

Nothing else for today; sorry my life is so boring right now :-)

Friday Eve

Row 72 has been completed on the shawl! Or to put it another way, the third row of the fifth pattern repeat. The picture on the cover is NOT the shawl I am making (although the pattern is from that book); the book is there mainly to give a little perspective to the size of the shawl. Unfortunately the cable is too short, so the knitting is all bunched up and I can't really spread it out.

Neighbor D is back from the hospital. I stopped by after work to check on him; two of his friends were there & just headed out to pick up some dinner for him. They said he was resting; I didn't want to disturb him so didn't go in. Glad he's home & doing better.

Really looking forward to the weekend, as always. PLUS!! I have vacation time coming up in the first week of August! Wooooo hooooooooooooo!!!

Tired

Feeling a little tired today, so gonna keep the post short. Finished the 4th repeat of the main body pattern on the shawl today. Even unblocked it nearly comes to the elbow, so perhaps just the six reps called for in the pattern will be enough after all. That will leave me about 300 yards leftover. Not sure what to do with it. . .

We are watching Neighbor J's cats while he is away, and Neighbor D's dog & birds while he is in the hospital (he's doing better & should be home soon). Today's pic is one of Neighbor J's cat, looking most elegant. Yes, he really is tailless. Ralph bought a new card reader for his computer so now I can post new pics rather than digging through his old ones. And it occurred to me today that despite having known Neighbor J for 8 years and having watched his pets before, I have no idea what the cats' names are! They are very friendly creatures though. This one is also very loud; the other day I was in the living room of my house, and could hear him meowing in the kitchen of Neighbor J's house!

Warning: nothing but complaints today!

Got mocked by a hummingbird today; it hovered directly in front of me just long enough for me to aim the camera, and then flew off right before I could click the shutter. Spent 30 minutes knitting and tinking the same 26 stitches. Actually, that's a bit deceptive, as it implies that I ended up with 26 stitches each and every time I knit and/or tinked. Had a very long back & forth e-mail chain with one of our loan officers trying to find out how a particular buyer was using his incentive; the numbers I got from the loan officer didn't add up correctly, and when I pointed out this out to him he forwarded the e-mail to Sales to ask them to verify my information! This *really* pissed me off, not just because it implies that I don't know what I'm doing (and after doing it for 8 years I think I may have a fair inkling of how to do my job), but if he had bothered to look at the contract he could have seen for himself that my numbers were right. Grrrrr!!!!

Still using Ralph's computer. Didn't post last night because his computer was giving me problems, but it seems to be behaving at the moment, albeit slowly. I was able to find this old photo of Hali & Gonzo. This was taken about a year before we had to put Gonzo down.

Ah, dinner's ready. Off I go!

Sigh

Conversation I just had with Ralph:

BACKGROUND: We had talked earlier about grilling the hamburger meat that is currently in the fridge, to have for dinner tonight.

Ralph: I'm going to go run an errand. Do you want me to cook before I go?
Me: I dunno. I had a burger for dinner last night; I know we should eat the hamburger before it spoils but it just doesn't sound good.
Ralph: Do you want me to pick up burgers or something while I'm out?
Me: (blank stare)
Ralph: (light dawns) Ah, burgers, hamburger, ha ha . . . a little joke there. . .

Actually, what *does* sound good is the Japanese/Chinese/Mongolian BBQ/American buffet up on Cherry, but it's rather expensive.

Using Ralph's computer

Having major computer issues today. We think the hard drive might be fried. Fortunately, our last back-up was at 11:00 pm yesterday, so once we replace the drive (or otherwise get things working again) we'll be able to reload everything. However, that means for today I'm stuck posting one of Ralph's photos, and his storage "system" is a nightmare to navigate. So, I'll just use this shot of a turtle taken at El Dorado Nature Center last month, rather than go nuts trying to find a *good* picture.

Also having trouble with my knitting. I'm on an easy row of the pattern, but I've just moved the lifeline and it's tightened the stitches so much that they won't slide along the needle at all. I have to fight for each and every millimeter. And, of course, in the struggle I keep dropping stitches, or knitting three together when I mean to knit two, etc. So I've set it aside for now.

Other than that, it's really been a pretty good day. We had a *very* fancy breakfast of quesadillas & burrito Supremes from Taco Bell followed by a mocha frap for me & plain coffee for Ralph; took the GG's to dog beach; I did some knitting and Ralph went to Harbor Freight to get electronics for Halloween. Oh, and we got the car washed by a group raising funds for the Special Olympics.

Our garden is doing well. We've got a small pepper growing on one plant, and one of the tomatillos is starting to get fruit too. Tomatoes aren't doing much yet, and the hot pepper only has the barest beginnings of buds. Still have no idea what we're going to do with all that basil though.

This was a good day, too

Had a very good day again today. Spent a lot of time knitting, part of that out in the backyard where I took these elegant shots of Halitosis having a delicate, ladylike sip of water. Went to El Torito for the breakfast buffet, then hit a couple pet stores (ow) to get a few essentials such as new dog toys, plants for the aquarium, etc. Knit some more, then we went to see "Wall*E" which Ralph enjoyed more than I did. The cartoon short beforehand was extremely funny (in my opinion better than the movie) and that alone was worth the price of admission. Afterwards we had dinner at Islands: pork tacos for Ralph, a BBQ cheeseburger for me, then we split a hot brownie topped with so-called iced cream. When I'm done posting I'm going to download some of the pictures I took today onto Flickr, then I'll knit for a bit before bedtime. I know--it sounds like a dull day, but trust me, after all the hustle & bustle of month end followed by 4th of July weekend followed by another week of work, a dull quiet day like this was just what I wanted and needed!

Short update on the shawl

Just finished the second repeat of the main body pattern. I pinned it out on a pillow for the photo at right so the pattern would show (the purple line above the cable is my lifeline). Also realized that I misread the instructions; I need to do six total of the main body pattern, not five. I think I have enough yarn so I'm not too worried about that. Now that I'm getting used to knitting the lace, it's going a bit faster. I can finish a row in about 30-40 minutes whereas at first it was taking me 40 minutes to an hour. I did notice something that amused me, though. Row 37 includes a purl three together followed by a purl three together through the back loop. I realized today that when I'm working these stitches, I count them off in my head as "purl three normal, purl three Abby Normal." Pretty good evidence that we are, indeed, influenced by environment/media :-)

And as far as we can tell, all babies are still alive in the aquarium, yay!

Fry!

Today has been a good day. Got up around 5:20, which gave me 40 minutes to knit before I had to get ready for work. Finished a whole row on the shawl with time to spare. Then I checked on the fish that we had to put in the hospital tank a couple days ago (she had internal hemorrhaging; you could see the blood showing through her skin) and was pleased to see that she looked much better. The blood stains had faded considerably, she wasn't bloated anymore. Oh, and there were about twenty babies in the tank with her. Guess she had so many babies inside her that her little fish-womb (or whatever they have) got a tear in it. We moved her back to the main tank so she wouldn't eat the babies. Hope they survive! Please note, there is a cropped version of the photo on my flickr site (link is on the left); the fish show up much better in that one.

Absolutely NO traffic on the drive to work, which was good because it meant I got there a few minutes early despite having left a few minutes late. Work itself was quiet, and I got a lot done with virtually no interruptions. That felt good, let me tell you. Got another row & almost-a-half done on the shawl during lunch. Closed escrow on one of our major problem loans, and have two more ready to fund on Monday. Whew!

And it's FRIDAY! Ralph & I thought about going to the Orange County Fair, but since this is opening weekend decided it would probably be way too crowded. We'll probably go next weekend instead. So the plans for the weekend are: gosh, we have none! I can rest and relax and read and knit and play with the dogs and have the break that I had been counting on last weekend and didn't get. Aaaaaahhhhhhhh. . . . . .

Another Survivor-less Thursday

Making some progress on the shawl. Had some major issues last night--screwed up on a couple spots and had real difficulty finding & correcting the errors. Today went much more smoothly. I'm on row 37 now. When I finish that, then I knit rows 30-37 four more times (adjusting for if I want a longer or shorter shawl), then knit row 6 again as an edging, then bind off & block. I'll have to get some lace blocking wires, because there is NO WAY that I am going to block with pins alone.

Read Big Sis's blog. Sounds like she is liking her new temp job well enough. It's a long drive for her. Bet she starts getting audiobooks again :-)

Ralph made carne asada for dinner tonight. He didn't have all the ingredients, but it still tasted pretty dang good. I may have some cake and so-called iced cream later. And that is really all I've got for The Teeming Millions today.

and it's Wednesday

Close up shot of a flame skimmer (type of dragonfly) on a reed in our backyard pond. Pretty cool, doncha think?

Another not so exciting day. I did get a mammogram & a bone density, wheee what fun. Although the bone density was rather relaxing; had it taken longer I could easily have fallen asleep. But it any case I got home a lot earlier than I would have if I'd worked all day, and it really didn't take long. Less than an hour from the time I arrived until the time I left.

Big Sis started a new temp job today. Hope she enjoyed it, and maybe this will turn into something permanananananent. Although, it *is* too far away for us to meet up for lunch. (I know, like that's the main criteria when job hunting!)

Had a good dinner last night. I mixed onion soup mix, a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of cream of chicken soup and one soup can of water, poured it over boneless skinless chicken breasts, covered it with foil and baked it a 375 for about an hour, then served it all up with smashed taters. (Big Sis, you may recognize this as a modified "bee fover" rice.) It really came out well, better even than I expected.

Guess that's it for today.

short post

Nothing exciting to blog about today, which I guess means more time for knitting :-) Just one thing. I have "The Secret Garden" on audiodisk. I didn't like the voice the narrator used for Mary Lennox; sounded like an 80-year-old man to me. I'm now listening to "Oliver Twist." Unfortunately it's the same narrator, and she's using the same voice for Oliver as she did for Mary.

Idiocracy

I was listening to a radio quiz show on the way to work this morning. I missed the first few questions, but of the final three: 1) neither contestant knew that a Macintosh computer is referred to as a "Mac" (one guessed "Apple," the other--who ended up winning the game--didn't have any guess at all); 2) neither contestant knew the answer to "Europa is one of the moons orbiting which giant planet?" (one guessed "Pluto"--yes, that's right, the planet that is so small it is no longer considered to even BE a planet--and the other guessed "Saturn." At least he picked a planet that is actually a giant); 3) yet BOTH contestants knew what TV show used the phrase "yabba dabba doo." I told GF about this, and she said that on the radio station she was listening to, the DJs were trying to figure out on what continent the Andes mountain range is located. She said that they were only able to name 5 continents, and none of them were the correct one. I fear for the future.

The server was down when I got to work today, which meant that for 45 minutes we couldn't send or receive e-mail, print anything, or access the reports we need in order to input the sales data for last week. That may not seem like a big deal, but we have an 8:00 am deadline to get that entered, and when you have no access to the information until 7:55 am, it makes it a bit difficult.

Had to laugh at myself today. As I passed the doorway to the stairs, I saw that it had "caution" tape criss-crossed over it, and a sign saying "Wet Paint." I thought to myself that I would have to remember to take the elevator at lunch, then thought, "But what do we do if there's a fire?" Of course my brain kicked in almost immediately with "You idiot, like wet paint would keep you off the stairs during a FIRE!!"

Shawl update! I now have 28 rows completed, and have done the final increases. The 12 stitches with which I started have increased to a total of 364. I suspect the remaining rows will not be completed as quickly as these first 18 have. Thank goodness for lifelines, though. Twice I have messed up to the point of needing to frog, and those lifelines kept me from having to start all over. The second time I was particularly lucky; I had just knit the entire yoke (rows 18-27, 181 stitches per row) and was ready to start the last set of increases (double plus 2 extra) when I thought, you know, I'm going to move that lifeline up now rather than wait. Well, I somehow managed to totally screw up that increase row, and only had to frog just that one row without risk of dropping the stitches & having to frog down to the previous lifeline on row 16.

One last bit & then I'm done for the night. At lunch, as I was eating, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye--a hand reaching over the back of my booth, reaching towards my table, reaching, reaching; then perspective & depth of field took over, and I realized it wasn't a hand at all, but a car outside the window going through the drive-up. Amazing what your brain will concoct before you have a chance to actually look at something.

The Shawl is officially started!

Doesn't look like much yet, does it? It's just the cast on plus the first six rows. The cast on was trickier than I expected. The book says to use a double-strand of yarn, and to push the stitch back 1" from the tip of the needle before making the next one. After a few experiments I went online & tried to find pictures or a better explanation. I came across the author/designer's website & the only helpful suggestion was to continue with the double strand for the first row. Anyway I think I did OK with it.

2/3 through the 3-day weekend

Got the garden in the ground today. Didn't really take all that long, either. Of course, it helped that Ralph rototilled three times during the week in anticipation of planting :-) Doesn't look like much know, but wait until it all fills in.

Spent more time with Moon & MH2 today. We went to the Halloween Club to buy a few things & get some ideas for the haunted house (this year's theme: haunted graveyard/mausoleum) (probably). Afterwards we had lunch at Red Robin & discussed the layout. Still don't know exactly how we want to set things up, but it is fun to consider the possibilities.

Finished spinning up the fiber for the shawl, and plied the last couple bobbins. I'm really surprised at how little yardage I got out of the 8 ounces of fiber; can't help but wonder if maybe it wasn't quite 8 ounces. . . still, I should have enough for a shawl although perhaps not the pattern I had originally decided to do. I also need to set the twist in the last two skeins.

Feeling very sleepy already, and it's barely 6:00 pm. Probably due to the large & late lunch combined with the warm weather. I'm glad there's one day left in the weekend. It's been a lot busier than I had planned. Don't get me wrong--I enjoyed visiting with everyone over the past three days, but I had also really been looking forward to a long, quiet weekend with Ralph so all the visiting really disrupted my mindset, if you know what I mean. Sometimes having no plans for the weekend IS the plan. On the other hand, we don't get a chance to visit our friends that often & I shouldn't whine about it when we do :-)

5th of July

Hope everyone who celebrates the 4th of July had a safe & sane holiday. Ours was very nice. Spent the morning hanging around the house, then around noon headed out to the nursery for some garden plants. It is rather late in the season, which meant there were not a lot from which to choose, but on the other hand the ones we did get already had blossoms on them which means not much longer before we'll have fruit & veggies. We got two tomato plants, two artichokes, a chocolate bell pepper (sorry, Sis, it gets the name from the color, not the flavor), basil, a hot pepper, and two tomatillo plants. Today we will be planting them.

We had planned on going out to dinner & a movie with our friends Moon & MH2, however we remembered on Thursday night that duh, Friday was the 4th of July. Since Hali is usually pretty freaked out by fireworks we always stay home with her. Fortunately our friends were quite content to stay in as well, and we had a nice BBQ with carne asada, fish, and shrimp along with green salad, potato salad, and chipsandsalsa. There was also so-called iced cream but we were all too full to eat even a bite!

Moon & MH2 brought along a DVD that some co-workers of theirs had made for him of his last two "voyages" as a skipper on Disney's Jungle Cruise, and we enjoyed watching that. I also introduced MH2 to the joys of Flickr addiction. I was showing her the search feature; we looked up "renaissance faire southern" and amongst the hits for that were three pictures that had Moon in them (he plays a Puritan at the faire) so she was really jazzed about that.

I also took a picture of MH2's hair; she also works at Disneyland as a ride operator, and when people ask her about "hidden Mickeys" in the park she always tells them that they missed one--then turns around. She says it always gets a laugh.

They stayed until around 10:00, and surprisingly there really hadn't been many fireworks at all. We probably *could* have gone out without Hali getting too freaked; still, I'm rather glad we stayed because we got to chat a lot more than if we had gone to a movie.

Patriotic Dogs

Zoe & Hali wish the Teeming Millions a safe & happy 4th of July :-)

I. . . I *Forgot*!

Can't believe I forgot to post yesterday. Not as if there were anything *exciting* to talk about, but still . . .

Had lunch with LM from work (Big Sis, if you are reading this, she is the co-worker who went with us the last time we saw Wicked). We worked together in Irvine, and she is still with the company although not in the same building as I am. It was fun and a real pleasure to see her again. I wasn't even sure she had "made the cut" when the transfer occurred, and had to look her up in the Outlook directory to be sure. She says her department is very busy; sounds as though she is as swamped as we are. Anyway, we didn't go anywhere fancy, just Arby's. I had their new toasted Italian sub. No, the sub was toasted, it wasn't made from toasted Italians. Once I took the peppers off it was delicious. Not sure why they put the peppers on; I told the cashier no peppers, and both he AND the other cashier told the sandwich maker person no peppers, but when I got the sammidge there they were.

Today the office is closing at 2:30 in honor of Independence Day. Not sure I'll actually be able to leave that early, but I'm going to try. I will, of course, be wearing my traditional "Love American Style" heart shirt which is of course the subject of today's photo. I made this, oh must have been in either '91 or '92 for a 4th of July picnic & have worn it every year since. I was a little dismayed to discover a stain on it last night while ironing it (don't faint, Sis) but was able to remove the stain by dabbing it with Q-tips dipped in diluted bleach, then rinsing it well so as not to damage the fabric.

Joined a new group on Flickr last week, "Feathery Friday." On Wednesday, the theme for the week is posted; then from Thursday to Saturday morning you post a bird photo that fits with the theme. Saturday is voting for your fave shot. Last week's theme was "My Back Side is My Best Side." I only had one photo that fit that theme, and it wasn't a very good one, but since I had *just* joined the group I posted it anyway. Mind you, on Sunday when we went to Bolsa Chica I took several really good shots that would have qualified but of course the contest was over by then. Didn't receive even one vote but then I didn't expect it to; I just wanted to participate. Was eagerly looking forward to this week's theme--and it's "Extreme Close-Up." Sigh. I don't have a single shot that qualifies, and since we don't have Kip anymore the chances of me being able to take one in time to enter are pretty slim. Guess I'll have to wait until next week. I will have the camera with me today, just in case. Maybe I'll stop at the bird shop & see if they will let me take a picture of one of their parrots. Anyway, here is a link to the winning photo (about which, when voting, someone commented "I'm going for the ostrich butt. How can I resist that?" I really want to use that line someday. . . ) http://www.flickr.com/photos/makeupanid/2612197969/ and the link to the one that I voted for. http://www.flickr.com/photos/patries71/2612319285/

happy Birthday Big Bro!

Doubt he reads this (not sure he even knows I have a blog) but here's a big Happy Birthday to my Older Older Brother!

Went to lunch with Big Sis today at Olive Garden. It was nice visiting without either of us having to clean house first, ha ha! When she gets a new job I hope she gets an hour for lunch & is close enough that we can still meet up once in a while.

Other than that it has been just a workday sort of day. Still finishing up month-end stuff, and trying to get caught up on some badly neglected backlog. MP has really been a huge help, scanning contracts, making new files, getting my filing cabinets set up (I *finally* got two today after almost two months of asking, and one of them has drawers too shallow to hold the files. Sigh) and doing lots of filing too.

Ralph has just announced that dinner is served (steak cooked on the grill, and mixed veggies) so I better go :-)