Fall at last

Can't believe I've let a whole week go by without posting. But then, as usual, not a whole lot has been going on.

I had jury duty today. Not too onerous, really. The info sheet that came with the summons said that knitting needles were prohibited, so I left my project in the car. Once in the assembly room, out of all the people there who should sit next to me but a woman with a bag full of yarn & needles! I asked how she managed to get them in & she said she just showed them to the bailiff and got the OK. So of course at the break I scurried to the car & got my project. It took three people checking out the needles before I got the OK to bring them in. Made the day much more pleasant, knitting and chatting with the woman (KM, whom I shall call K from jury duty to avoid confusing her with the other KM that I know). I got called as part of a pool but didn't even make it into the jury box. Oh, fie, I realize that I gave K my blog site address but not my e-mail address. Good thing I have hers--I'll e-mail her tonight as she is going to send me a recipe for marmalade ham.

Making good progress on my current project: a short-sleeved cotton/silk top knit from the top down. I've never made a shirt before and am pleased with how this is turning out, although it is a bit heavier than I anticipated. It's done in sport weight at a gauge of 5 stitches per inch, and of course I'm used to sock yarns so really didn't anticipate how heavy it will be. Still, with fall here I'm sure the weather will start to cool down soon and the shirt will be appropriate for the season. The Polaroid in the photo is just for perspective, so you can see how much I've done.


The pirate party went well last week. Dad & J didn't stay very long; they weren't feeling too well & I think once most of the people had arrived it was just too noisy for either of them to really hear on top of that. Duh & Happy had great outfits; she had on a chenille skirt as part of her pirate-wear, and he was dressed as a seafarin' pirate captain. Yes, you've got it right--they were The Captain and Chenille. Many a groan followed that revelation. All in all there were about a dozen guests and I think everyone had a good time. Of course no one took any photos; I cheated & snapped a shot about 10 minutes ago of one of the decorations that is still up. My knit squid, octopi, and fish hats made nice additions, I think, to the pirate-y theme.

Not sure what to do with my evening. My shoulder & thumb are sore from knitting so that's out. Ralph won't be home for dinner so no reason to cook. Nothing I want to watch on TV. I took a walk during the lunch break so I don't even have to ride the exercise bike tonight, although I may do 10 minutes just to stay in the habit of using it. Or maybe I'll just read & go to bed early. Who knows?

Survivor starts tonight!

Tonight is the season premiere of Survivor. Hope it's better than last season; I'm a bit wary because CBS has been promoting one of the guys as "the worst villain yet." I'm afraid he'll be another irritating peahead like Coach.

Had our second square dance class on Tuesday. It really is a lot of fun. I especially liked this one maneuver where you kinda walk in interlocking squares. It's hard to describe, really. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm a beginner here, too, and to not try to give advice to other dancers (such as "don't forget, the turn is a separate step done on its own beat; don't combine it with the previous step or you'll get ahead of the music").

Had an extremely yarnful weekend. Went to the anniversary sale at Alamitos Bay Yarn Company on Saturday where I bought 11 balls of Classic Silk in kiwi, 2 balls of Mini-Mochi in violets (I already had two of these, but it wasn't enough for the project I want to use it for), two skeins of sock yarn, three sets of needles and a pattern. After fretting all night that I would run out of the Classic Silk before I got to the end of the project I bought it for, I went back to get one extra ball. Ended up getting two, another set of needles, a Duets sock kit, and nine skeins of a soft green/khaki wool. To crown it all off, yesterday I received the Twilight sock yarn I had ordered back in July.

allemande left, do-si-do. . .

On Tuesday, Ralph & I went to our first square dance class. The Teeming Millions may remember last July, when we went to the OC County Fair & saw the Boys 'n' Berries perform (see today's picture). That is the group we took the class with. It was a lot of fun with a wide range of ages; the youngest was 16 & the oldest. . . well, I won't hazard a guess but they were Of A Certain Age :-) I was surprised at how worn out we were by the end of it! The first class is free & it's $5 per person, per class after that. I am sure we will be going again this Tuesday.

Just over a week to go until the Pirate Party. Still haven't gotten a lot of replies from folks saying they will be here; most of them have been regrets. A little disappointing of course, although a smaller party means being able to have good conversation with all the guests.

Went to read one Oklahoma Kitty (formerly Bad Kitty Blog) and it's gone! Cher, if you're reading this--where's your blog???

Bleeding? No, not really.

As mentioned in a previous post, Lizard bought some yarn from an independent dyer in France recently. Long story short, Lizard & I both got a skein of free yarn because the dyer was not happy with it; said she couldn't get it to stop bleeding and would give it to the first takers. Today I soaked it in hot water with a goodly glug of vinegar. It's been soaking now for over ninety minutes. Can you see any dye bleeding into the water? No? Didn't think so. There might be a wee smidge of blue tint, but really not enough to warrant giving the yarn away in my opinion. So I gotta wonder: did the dyer give up one vinegar wash too soon, or does she just have excruciatingly high standards?

Ralph is currently in the kitchen making chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

LA County Fair 2009

I'm sure the Teeming Millions are dying to know what decision was made yesterday: housework or Fair? We ended up doing both. No photos of the housework, ha ha, but of course I've got some from the Fair. Oddly enough, there weren't too many deep-fried anythings. No, this year the theme was "chocolate covered" and we saw places selling chocolate covered corn, cotton candy, Reese's Puffs, marshmallow krispies, bacon, and red licorice.



I liked this first-place winner in the table setting competition, a tribute to Toy Story. Very well done in my opinion and a creative choice. The description was written out on model Etch-a-Sketches.



These were labeled "African Rainbow Roses." Developed in the Netherlands, these beauties are injected with dye along four sections of the stem on the developing bud. The flowers absorb the colors as they grow, resulting in the multi-hued blooms.



A Nubian goat and her kid. She was rather protective of the little one, and even chased off another kid when he (she?) got too close.



The list of ice cream flavors available at "From Cow to Cone." Yes, that last one on the left really does say soy sauce. We had a sample taste of that. It wasn't bad, but it was weird. Kinda vanilla-ish until you swallow, and then a fairly strong soy sauce flavor. We both decided to forgo having a full scoop, opting instead for pineapple coconut (me) and cappuccino crunch (Ralph).



A calf resting in the barn. It was a hot day (nearly 100) and none of the animals were very lively. Can't say that I blame them for that!

Labor Day weekend in progress

We've had a good start to our 3-day weekend. After a lovely breakfast at home (cheese, bacon & eggs on English muffins, seasoned with garlic salt & black pepper) we took the GGs to Dog Beach. This was the first time Sadie had ever been so we weren't sure how well she would behave in an unfenced area with lots of other dogs around. No need to worry; she stuck pretty close to us, and when she did run off to play she always returned when we called her. We walked from one end of the dog area to the other (Ralph marked the spot where we left our shoes on his GPS--he's such a geek, I just gotta love him!) and Zoe did a lot of chasing other dogs. When we were ready to leave, Ralph realized he'd lost his glasses. We searched up & down the beach but with the tide coming in we knew it was pointless. We got to the far edge of the dog area and Ralph said, "Maybe they fell out of my pocket when I knelt to take the dogs off the leashes. We were around here somewhere. . . " Mostly so we could honestly say we'd looked everywhere, we began to search--and we found them! Unbelievable.

After dropping the dogs off at the house & having a quick rinse to get the sand off, we headed to Halloween Club looking for party decorations. Not a lot of luck there; we got a couple things but they didn't have much in the way of pirate stuff. We hit pay dirt at Party City, though; plates, napkins, decorations, and a couple costume tidbits. There was even a beach "scene setter" that wraps along the wall, however we decided not to get that since it would mean removing furniture so there was someplace to put it.

From there we went to the pet store. Ralph picked out some plants & fish. I picked out a betta and then left him to it while I went over to the bookstore. Got three new paperbacks, woo hoo!

When we got home, Ralph puttered with the aquarium and I rode the exercise bike for half an hour. Yes, a full half hour on the bike! Me, of all people. Then we both read until Ralph decided he *must* have pie. Off to Polly's we went, starting off with a cup of soup for me & a cup of chili for him. I had boysenberry pie with so-called "iced cream" (no, that's not a disparaging remark about the quality of the ice cream; it's a Simpsons reference) and Ralph, being full from the chili, ordered his pie (custard) to go. A whole pie, at that.

Today--well, not sure what's on the plate for today. What we should do and what I want to do are two different things entirely. What we should do is housework, grocery shopping, and bathing the dogs. What I want to do is go to the LA County Fair for a few hours, then come home & read and/or spin and/or knit. Which will win--maturity or fun? Oh--I also need to get some vinegar & see if I can get the dye to stop bleeding in a couple skeins, and I promised Lizard I'd repair the Eeyore I knit for her a few years back. He's got a hole in one "armpit."

The night before last I had three dreams--three totally separate, woke up in between them dreams--in which I traveled back in time to attend the Sock Summit. I really wanted to go to that, and I guess I'm still regretting that I was unable to do so.

September.. . already???

It's been 11 days since we bought the exercise bike, and I have ridden it on 8 of those days. Not too bad. Last night I was on it for 25 minutes. Yay me!

Had lunch yesterday with Lizard, The Girl, and DW from work. I often think that Lizard & DW are a lot alike so I was glad that they finally got to meet. Everyone seemed to have a good time. We went to El Torito which has a very nice lunch buffet.

Work is VERY busy, I am glad to say. I processed 13 contracts this morning; there's still one to go but I had other stuff that needed to get done so I'll do that one tomorrow. My desk is buried in folders & paperwork--if only I could have one or two days without getting any new work dropped into my inbox I'm sure I could get caught up.

Ralph is on vacation this week, and on Monday he cooked a lovely roast chicken with potatoes, carrots, pearl onions, and green beans. It was quite tasty; I had some of the leftovers for dinner last night. He was going to make shepherd's pie tonight but while out running errands got lured in by "Inglourious Basterds" which he correctly assumed I did not want to see. He called a wee bit ago & will be bringing home In-n-Out burgers for dinner. For those amongst the Teeming Millions who are unfamiliar with this California fast-food restaurant, let me tell you they are *the best* burger place, bar none. The beef is never frozen, and the fries are cooked to order from real potatoes that you can watch get sliced up before they're put in the fryer. They sell only burgers (with or without cheese; single or double patty), fries, milkshakes & soda. While I was quite looking forward to shepherd's pie, I'm certainly not disappointed to get In-n-Out instead--especially since he said he'd make the shepherd's pie tomorrow night instead.

Had a great time at the show-and-tell on Sunday. One woman had brought some silk lace scarves that were so soft & light that you couldn't even feel them when you picked them up. Another had brought a wonderful woodsy-themed afghan. Despite much temptation I did not buy any yarn, although there were some close calls. That Manos, for example, and the "Night Music" sock yarn. . . sigh.