I'm It

I've been tagged by my friend Jill so here goes:

What was I doing ten years ago?

May of 1998. The Italian and I had just recently bought our house, I was working for the evil empire (no, not that evil empire, that one) and hating almost every minute of it. I realized that even though I was doing a job that I was good at and paid well for I couldn't stand the shallow, pointlessness of what I did, and I was too young to contemplate spending the rest of my working life doing something I hated just because of the paycheck.

We didn't yet have kids, although we had two cats. At that point I was spinning and weaving, in addition to knitting, although the fore-mentioned soul-sucking job didn't leave me with much time to do anything other than work and commute. At least the weekends were mostly free. I used to think I didn't have enough free time - little did I know what having kids would be like!

Five things on my to-do list for today:

Well it's close to the end of today but there's a lot left to do:
feed the family
get the kids to bed
clean up the kitchen
read some more of John Adams by David McCullough
hang out with my man
fold laundry
put away groceries
(oops, that's more than five)

Snacks I enjoy:

Popcorn, pretzels, fruit (especially berries)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

End world hunger, cure AIDS, spread peace and harmony...
Come on, this is kind of a pain in the a** question. Are we talking about what I would do for my family, or the world? I'd love to travel more, spend more time with my kids, all that good stuff.

Places I have lived:

Bedford, MA; Carlisle, MA; Santa Cruz, CA; Providence, RI; Belmont, MA; Menlo Park, CA

Tag?

Nobody. Do it if you want to, just leave me a comment so I can look!

Phew!

What a busy, wonderful weekend. I can't believe how much we crammed into three days, and it was good.

Saturday morning we had some new friends over for brunch and had a great time. These new friends are vegan and we're not so I had some advance planning to do in order to figure out what to cook, but it turned out (mostly) pretty good.

Saturday afternoon I had a strong urge to go to Knitting Arts' going out of business sale (30% off everything). I bought a small quantity of yarn and a few books that I will blog about some other time. The store is a bit of a hike from us so I went looking for something we could do with the kids to rationalize/justify the trip and I came across Hakone Garden, a wonderful Japanese Garden in the Saratoga foothills with some beautiful landscaping. The kids had a lot of fun just walking on the paths, and I enjoyed experiencing nature first hand (instead of just out the window of the car).

I was so inspired by how much fun we had at the Hakone Garden that I decided that we would get more outdoor time. So Sunday we went to Rancho San Antonio and set out for a hike. We had a map of the County Park and the trails and I figured we would hike for 1-2 miles. We packed a lunch and set out at 11:30. Buddy was tired and hungry and very quickly decided he wanted to be carried by mama, and only mama. We went on for a while, then came to a fork in the trail. The Italian decided to take a trail that continued up the hill and off the map. We finally found a good spot for our lunch with an amazing view of the valley. After that the children had more energy and we tramped happily on until we came around a corner to find that the trail we were on appeared to continue up and over the hill and not in the direction we wanted to go. We had a bad couple of moments trying to decide if we had to backtrack (up the hill) or would we find a trail that led back in the direction we wanted to go. Fortunately another hiker came along and told us that there would be a trail back to the park entrance. Buddy only insisted on being carried a little more toward the end of our walk, and we were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the car. We grabbed a more extensive trail map on our way out, and my best guess is that we walked about four miles, mostly up and down hills, and I carried 35 lbs of boy for at least 45 minutes of that!

Monday saw us all sleep late, and I woke up stiff and sore in places that I hadn't paid much attention to in years! Some Tylenol and a hot shower helped a bunch, and after a morning of laundry/dishes/tidying/playing we headed into San Francisco to meet a friend and go to The Exploratorium. The Italian took the kids there last summer for my birthday but I hadn't been in 14 years, and we had a blast. Punkin got to hang with our friend and the Italian and I kept track of Buddy and took turns looking at exhibits. Our friend's husband met us for dinner afterwards and we had a great time.


No pictures of Punkin - she didn't stand still long enough!

Busy, busy weekend, but lots of fun. I've been fretting lately that we spend too much of our weekend time doing errands and not enough time outside, so I'm glad we shifted gears this weekend. I have high hopes for continuing this trend in coming weeks.

On the knitting front I have been busy.

I finished these socks for my mom:


She picked out the yarn (Socks that Rock) on a previous trip and I picked a stitch and let her rip. They were fun and easy and she loves them!

Here are some progress shots of Cassie (which has since been finished):


Punkin has worn it a couple of times but I need to wash and re-block it (the two fronts are different lengths). I made a bunch of stupid mistakes on this one, including this:


It's subtle but if you look closely you can see that the yarn on this sleeve is two different dye lots. Yes, I mixed dye lots by accident when I bought the yarn. I ended up doing the sleeves in one dye lot and the fronts and back in the other. Duh, I hate making rookie mistakes. Once I've re-blocked it I will take some shots on Punkin and do a more detailed post, if nothing else just to document my stupidity.

With Cassie finished I have picked up Serrano again, and remembered why I put it aside in the first place:


I got too clever when I did the waist decreases. I was trying to fit in the max patterning across the place where I was decreasing, and I ended up shifting the decreases significantly to the left. Duh, see earlier note about making stupid mistakes.
I have since ripped back 3-4" and am now almost up to the point where I separate for armhole shaping.

I've got another pair of socks on the needles but no photos yet. Nothing earth-shattering, just Cherry Tree Hill in a small stitch repeat, and this pair is for me!

There are still more projects that need finishing after I'm done with Serrano...

A Few Firsts

We had a few firsts this week.

On Monday afternoon Buddy had his first spin on a bicycle. It was a two wheeler with training wheels (so technically a quadricycle) that I got on Freecycle (and it's a little bit too big) and he rode like a champ. He's got that natural gross motor control that lets him accomplish almost any major physical activity. Alas, I have no photos because I was too busy running up and down the block after my little boy.

Punkin, meanwhile, was having her second try on a bike with no training wheels. We put the seat all the way down and took the pedals off so she could just roll along using her feet on the ground. Her bike is also a smidge too big so she wasn't entirely steady, but she got some good practice. She lacks the natural physical abilities of her brother (she's my kid!) so it will take her longer to practice. No pictures of her, either, but many thanks to our friend John who assisted through all of this!

The next big first happened on Tuesday, when Punkin got in trouble at school for the first time. It seems that one of the teachers chided her for sitting down during Phys Ed (did I mention she's my child?) and she said something typically 7 year old to one of her friends about said teacher. Somehow or another word got back to the teacher of what was said and Punkin got a talking to. Her teacher sent me an email with a heads up so I asked her about it that night, although it took some prying to get the whole story. We talked about it for a while, and the next morning I had her write an apology note to the teacher, which she then hand-delivered that day at school. Traumatic for her but not too big of a deal, and hopefully she learned something from it.

Knitting is happening. I'm almost done with Cassie, just have to decide how to close it. I'm having some trouble getting a zipper for the Ribby Cardi, and I'm making good progress on Serrano. I'm dying to start something new, but I'm even more motivated to finish a few things first.

Pics someday, don't know when!

Starting the day on a nice note

I had a lovely start to my day, thanks to my local garbage men.

No, really, I did.

I was getting the kids rolling this morning when I heard the doorbell ring (at about 7:05). Given how an early morning call started my day on Sunday I was a little apprehensive as I went to check who was there. I pulled back the curtain at the front window and saw a man in a safety vest walking away. It took me a second to realize that it was the garbage collection man, and two more seconds to make it out to the side of the house to drag the barrel to the curb.

The garbage man who had rung the bell came back up the street to take the barrel and asked me where it was - in the back? I said no, on the side of the house, to which he replied that he'd looked there but hadn't seen it. He said that with the dirty diapers and all he figured we would be happy to get rid of our weekly trash.

Let me make sure this is clear: the garbage man went looking for my trash barrel, and rang the bell to let me know that he couldn't find it. Does anybody else find this completely amazing? I continue to be impressed that he would go out of his way to help us out. I thoughts about calling the garbage company and letting them know how pleased I am, but then I wasn't sure if maybe they're not supposed to do that, and I wouldn't want to get him in trouble.

Maybe I'll bake him some cookies.

In other news, we're having record breaking heat around here today. It's frakkin' hot. And I don't like hot. Cold I can manage, but it was over 100 degrees here today, and it's still hot and stuffy. It's supposed to be hot again tomorrow, although not quite as hot as today. And I've just about finished the knee length wool coat I've been knitting for Punkin - perfect timing!

Time to go, gotta clean up after dinner and attempt to fold some of the mountain of laundry that has piled up. Punkin bought a half yard of white cotton fabric and some lace trim the other day, so she can make a lace trimmed hanky, a la Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I told her it has to be washed before she can start. Patience is not her strong suit, and she's been asking me every morning and evening if it's ready!

A Not so Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day started with a phone call at 6:48 am.

Phone calls that early are never good. I didn't get to the phone in time, but noted on the called ID that it was my father-in-law who had called, and then tried to go back to bed. When I told the Italian it was his dad who called he pointed out that his dad was unlikely to screw up the time change (calling from the East Coast) and that the other possibility was that he was calling about a family emergency.

I still tried to go back to sleep but the truth of what he said gnawed at me, so I got up.

Unfortunately, he was correct. His aunt and uncle were killed in a car crash early Sunday morning. It was one of those senseless tragedies that strikes at random, and the family is worse for it.

It is unlikely that the kids and I will travel to the services (in Massachusetts) although I think the Italian is still on the fence about going.

On a much happier note, my three year old son just said to me "my like you a lot every day" (he says "my" for "I").

I needed that. I think I'll go play Mousetrap with him some more.

And I wonder why I'm tired...

today's schedule so far:

8:00 - pancake breakfast fundraiser for Punkin's school
9:00 - drop Punkin and the Italian off at Mandarin class
9:15 - purchase bagels and endure one of Buddy's raging tantrums (he didn't get exactly the cookie that he desired. I sat him down on the sidewalk outside the bagel shop and just let him scream.)
9:30 - stop at an estate sale, pick up a few things
10:00 - retrieve the Italian from Mandarin, bring him to estate sale (he likes these kinds of things)
11:00 - retrieve Punkin from Mandarin class
11:15 - go to Silicon Valley Open Studios to see my friend Moose's really great artwork (stopping first at a library booksale - more on that later). Hang out with Moose for a little while until Buddy started to come apart at the seams.
12:00 - go to Costco (always a good idea on a Saturday) to buy some groceries and grab a quick lunch.
1:30 - home, unload the car, try to get Buddy to nap (hasn't worked yet).
That brings us to now, 3:27. The kids are watching TV (it's part of the nap attempt process), the Italian is sacked out on the bed, and I'm sneaking a minute to do this.

What's left for today? A trip to the Computer History Museum that we had tentatively planned is probably out. We may still try to go to the WWII Trainers event at the Hiller Aviation Museum that Buddy would love. And we're due at a party tonight at 5:30, for which we still have to prepare food to bring.

Not all Saturdays are this busy, but enough of them are!

Beuller, Beuller?

Blogger wouldn't post my last post, so I'm trying again.

Granted, it wasn't a great post, but irritating nonetheless.

Hi

Trying again to post this one...

I have been meaning to get back to this for quite some time. I keep waiting for the time to write a really kick-ass post, trying to explain why I've been absent and show what I've done for myself in all this time.

But that's why I've been gone so long - there's never the time to do anything kick-ass.

So instead I'm just here saying hi. I've been knitting - I've just blocked the pieces to a sweater I'm making for Punkin. I made socks for my mom, started a pair for myself.

I'm going to try to finish up some projects that have been lingering. I'm not going to start anything new for a little while.

The kids are doing fine, the Italian is busy, and I'm (mostly) getting through each day.

There, I've done it. Let's hope the next one is better!