40 Days and 40 Nights

We're "enjoying" another week of rain. While it's wonderful that the drought is finally over I am not so much enjoying the catch up process. By the end of May we had a bit over what we might have expected through June in an average year. On the other hand, the lakes take some time to fill up and are really just now getting full. Because we have had so many rain days the temperatures have been mild and we are not running the air conditioning all day and night. I love being able to open the windows into June. Many years we have already seen temperatures above 100 degrees.

We had Miss Vivian and her entourage (the people formerly known as the parents) for dinner last night. In spite of a little timing hiccup cased by getting out of the house on time with a baby, a feat which is demonstrably not possible, it was a really nice dinner. We had a nice visit and it was nice to see Alex and Samantha at my table. Miss Vivian is cuter every time I see her. At this point it looks like blue eyes after all, probably the color of her mother's eyes. She came to dinner in her pajamas, having had a wardrobe malfunction on the way out the door to come visiting. She's interacting a bit more now, although she was getting past her bed time by the time it was time to go home, so she was getting a little sleepy. Rita was fascinated by the baby, and full of advice and instructions for Jamie and Alex. It was a little challenging teaching Rita Vivian's name. After about the fourth try she pointed out to me that "When James named his baby he picked a name I could say". She has agreed that Vivian is every bit as cute as April Rose.

We are having back-to-back dinners this weekend. Early Saturday morning I started cooking the brisket Alex had requested for dinner. After lunch with friends at the Classen Grill, I went to pick up Rita. As soon as we got home it was time to start on the cake for our dinner with Miss Vivian. This morning it's time to create a potluck dish for the church luncheon, then home to make another cake and cooking dinner for the Humphreys and Shana's dad. By the end of the weekend we will be tired of looking at food of any kind. This is a good thing, because we don't have much time for cooking during the week.

Little to no crafting has been happening this week. Hence no image of massive progress or beautiful finished object. I picked up the "Triangles" shawl this week and ended up frogging all previous work. I could not get the count right. I'm about back to where I was when I ripped it out, but I am not happy. I am having a hard time counting and deciding where to place markers, besides which I think there may be an error in one row that throws the whole thing off to the left a couple of stitches. I think I'll tear it out again and go for the Beginner's Triangle from A Gathering of Lace. I think that will suit the yarn, which is basically somewhere between heavy sock weight and sport weight, and the purpose, which is "everyday office shawl". I'm also considering a simple feather and fan patterned stole. If that doesn't work I'll throw it into a corner and cast on for Icarus! I've been pecking at the basic socks, ignoring the purple Monkey Socks in plain sight next to my knitting chair, and that's about it. I printed out the Trellis baby sweater pattern, but have not even read through it yet, so no progress in that direction either.