April (May, June) Showers

Rain continues day and night. A planned WAACO ride Saturday evening looked a lot like a bunch of people waiting at the bus stop. Rain poured down by the bucketload while we all waited around under the shelter of the Deer Creek High School front porch. Shana and I were the last to arrive and by the time we got there the rain had soaked our bike seats. Note to self: add a towel or two to the traveling equipment. Fortunately we were rewarded for our patience with an amazingly pleasant ride in the rain-cooled evening. Blake rode on the come-along and it looks like that option is going to work pretty well.

Afterwards it was a short hop over to Nez & Helen's place for a delicious meal and a great visit with everyone. I got a surprise additional birthday gift prominently featuring a gift certificate to Pro Bike - and I know just the item I am lusting after. Shana has a top tube bag the is just the handiest thing ever. It's easy to reach and I'm thinking it will be the prefect place for a camera. It would be so nice to take one along on rides from time to time, especially for events like the Hotter N Hell. I'm definitely going to get one of those for myself, and maybe some new bike socks and stock up on riding snacks. I was mighty disappointed that Pro Bike was not open today! Also present was a brand new in-the-box ice tea maker. I may have lost the battle to keep from replacing Shana's until it actually dies. She's had hers for at least 12 years and while it is still working reliably it is just about the ugliest thing going. Rather than being trimmed in the cool retro turquoise of the new unit, hers is this horrble reddish brown color. Not appetizing.

Shana and I went out to Jim's for breakfast this morning. It was cloudy and we felt comfortable taking Roxy with us because we were sure that it would not get too hot in the car for her. Well, when you are having showers off and on at all hours of the day and night it is not a very good idea to leave your sunroof open a crack to insure the dog's comfort. There was a sudden downpour and we had nice wet seats and water all over the inside of the car. I had a couple of errands to run on the way home and went about my business with a very wet skirt.

Sock knitting continues. One purple Monkey sock is complete, and I have started on the cuff of the second. I am nearly halfway down the foot of the Wildfoote Rhapsody sock and it's looking good. That one should be finished by mid week. As a bonus celebration Friday I cruised on over to the Gourmet Yarn Company to do a teeny bit of shopping. I picked up a couple of skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn (so pretty) and a new book: Marcia Lewandowski's Folk Mittens. I don't know if I will actually make anything from this book, but the mittens are just deliciously inspiring and there is quite a bit of good information on the techniques involved in this sort of project. I started on Trellis for Vivian, but I don't quite understand one line of the instructions, so I think I'll be ripping back the first couple of inches on the back and starting over. No hurry, in any event as i am making the 12 month size for next spring.


This evening it's to be a Father's Day dinner for John, with Rita and the Humps joining us. Shana is tempting the rain gods by grilling some flank steak, and we'll have a good salad and some roasted potatoes. Then we'll undo all of the good healthiness of the meal by finishing up with a caramel apple upsidedown cake and ice cream. It's really called Apple Cake Tatin featured on The Barefoot Contessa this morning, but I think it will taste like caramel apples.

The More Things Change

I read a couple of posts and comments tonight that really made me think. In the June 11 post on JenLa La had asked for podcast recommendations, citing a couple of popular podcasts that had not appealed to her. I'd gone back to reread the comments and see if there were any shows mentioned I might like to download. Like so many on line discussions, it seemed like you can only get a certain number of comments before someone has to make a cutting remark and the flame is on.

Enchanting Juno posted yesterday about the kinds of demeaning comments about women that are so common that it almost seems small minded to complain, except that silence makes you complicit. At the very least you'd always be The No Fun Feminazi Bitch for speaking up. It's interesting that while everything you say about almost any group has to pass through the PC filter, but you can say anything at all about a woman's appearance or character without any anyone speaking up.

At first glance these seemed like two different topics, but on closer examination they come from the same place. Why can women not support each other? Why not speak up against a demeaning remark about another woman? Why not support the efforts of individual women even if the results are not exactly to our tastes? We are the majority in the country and maybe in the world. If we stood together none could stand against us. Why is it so hard to support each other?

Tomorrow I'll show you my knitting and my snacks, but for tonight hug your girlfriends, turn away from malicious gossip and remember that we choose what we will tolerate, and maybe this is not what we want in our lives.

10:46

I just finished my first time trial - 5K (about 3.5 miles) in 10 minutes 46 seconds. I was hoping for no more than 12 minutes, so I did lots better than I expected. The time was good enough for a second place in my division. I'm really pumped.


I had tickets to see Wicked (a birthday treat), with dinner afterwards in the plans. It was really entertaining. the set design was spectacular, and the actors were erally good. We the at the Museum cafe, a very pretty restaurant, good service, the food was OK; the company was excellent.

Girls' Day In

My original plans for this afternoon involved a million errands, topped off with some seriously dirty work in the back yard. Fortunately for me I had a change of plans.

The beautiful Miss Vivian kept her parents up most of the night last night screaming, so I got to play with the baby this afternoon while they had lunch with friends and a nice quiet nap at home.

Vivian came to my house dressed in her pirate suit (arrrrgh!). There was eating, kicking, smiling, looking around, napping, fussing, eating, etc. And oh yes, there was a little bit of screaming too. Whenever she is awake the little arms and legs never stop moving. It's no wonder she needs lots of naps.

By the time Mom and Dad came back for her Vivian was worn out but trying to stay awake. It was her bed time but she knew she was not in her usual place. When Mom and Dad came for her she was sooo happy to see her mom. She gave her mom a big smile and stared at her as though she had given up hope of ever seeing her mother again.

Evil Wild Roxanne had to spend most of the afternoon outside. She is not the perfect dog auntie yet. While I settled the baby in her chair out of doggy reach Roxanne was taking everything out of the diaper bag. I got there just in time to get the bag before it disappeared into Roxanne's Treasure Trove. It took a while for Roxy to grasp the concept that the best behavior around the baby is NOT leaping up and down with a huge grin on her face (featuring ALL of her teeth).

End of an Era

The Hancock Fabrics near me is just about finished, and I doubt that I will go in again. I stopped in today and picked up some buttons at 25 cents a card, and some two yard pieces of fabric, bolts of ribbon and knitting needles all for 70% or 80% off. I think I got a pretty good haul for thirty-two bucks. Of course I have no firm plans for any of this stuff, it's all just stash, but there is enough yardage in each of the prints for a little sun suit for Baby Vivian next summer, or a pair of pajama pants for me. I hate to see the store close. Not only is it very conveniently located on my way home from work, but I have been in and out of there so many times in the last thirty years it's almost like throwing away a scrapbook. Shana used to walk there with her grandmother, too. It's sad to see all of the old fixtures emptied out and loitering around the perimeter of the store waiting for someone to take them away. Oh well, all things change.

I Wonder Where the Birdies Is

That's not quite true. I know exactly where the birdies is! This swallow nest is outside my office window. Every year the pair return and raise a new family (or two) These two are this spring's first babies. I think this pair started with three eggs, and these two giant chicks are the survivors. They are easily as big as the parents, and are quite capable of flying, but they hang around the nest to be fed. You can tell they are babies by the white lines around their beaks (the bug target for Mom and Dad) and their breasts are much lighter than the adults'. I think this pair will have time to hatch another clutch this season, so I'm pretty sure these "teenagers" are about to get a rude awakening. The nest will be needed for the next bunch of hungry mouths.

Sock knitting is still happening, albeit slowly. I am nearly down the flap of the second sock this pair, and the purple monkey socks are halfway down the foot of the first sock.

The Closer She Gets

...The more she gives away her age. Sigh. It's funny how ad slogans and images that are imprinted on my brain mean nothing to anyone only a little younger. Actually I was thinking of "365 Photos". It was meant as an exercise that would encourage you to take more pictures, and to think about what you wanted to accomplish with your photos. I started out with a couple of ideas. One was an idea that has to do with my idea of what Art is. I think of (modern secular) art as a way of pointing to the mundane and getting the viewer to see it in a different way. The exact way of pointing, or the way the thing is seen is the choice of the artist, with an idea of who his viewer is. Between the artist and the viewer there is a relationship of collusion or confrontation that gives the image a meaning outside of its strict visual context. So far I find I have three different directions I'm going in. First: pictures of the utterly banal - various parts of my house, the work area of my desk, the inside of my fridge. This idea needs more development. I think with better selection and/or cropping it could be quite interesting and make a statement about my relationship with my surroundings. Second: pictures of natural objects like flowers, plants, or fruits which are obviously beautiful, but whose beauty is revealed in close focus. Third: images where the image might have intrinsic humor or where there is a natural "clash" between the items photographed together. In this category fall all of the "me and my snack" pictures.

I think at the end of the year I will break these various categories out in my Flickr galleries. So far it has been an interesting exercise. At the very least it has forced me to look around me for images I want to capture, and in the process look a lot more closely at the details of the world around me. If you have time to check out my Flickr galleries you can check out the 365 group for this project. Also, on my sidebar there is a Flickr "badge" that is featuring random items from the 365 group.