The Homebody Malgre Elle

No camping this weekend. It's just too cold, and rainy besides. Not massive amounts of snow like Western Kansas is enjoying this weekend, but it wasn't even 40 at noon today, and it pretty much rained and drizzled all day and into the evening yesterday. So. I consoled myself with a new issue of Backpacker and a cup of coffee at the Barnes & Noble Starbucks yesterday. When I sat down to read the magazine later at home of course I got a fresh infusion of my bear phobia. This issue had an outdoor skills theme, and of course, as in all issues, bear avoiding skills were highlighted. Apparently you should eat 100 yards from your camp to avoid sharing your tent with a bear. Of course there was a little sidebar article about where to go in Oklahoma to see mountain lions, too. I would rather not see mountain lions.


There has been a fair amount of work done on Baby Vivian's afghan. I am more than half done. I'll still have to hustle up, because she is expected on or before next Wednesday. Still, I think there is hope. It is turning out to be very pretty and soft. The pattern is so open I think I'll be a lot happier with it after the border is on. That will give it more body and structure. I've been out to do a little shopping for the baby this week, now that I have a little better idea of what is needed. Alex came by to get his old crib, on his way from Target where they purchased a car seat/stroller combo. That covered most of the needed "hardware". I hit him with a flurry of text messages from Target to find out what Vivian has so far. Vivian has a nice swing and enough blankets, but only one crib sheet. I got her a boppy with two covers, a couple of extra crib sheets, cute outfit, a few basic everyday onsies, and a package of receiving blankets. I'll need to think about some kind of crib to have here when/if she comes over, but I think I'll just check out garage sales for a playpen or port-a-crib. If I can pick up a nice playpen Alex can keep it at home and I can bring it here when she comes.


The Kimono Shawl is nearly done. It may actually be close to long enough now, but I think I will be pulling it sideways quite a lot in the blocking which may shorten it a bit, so I am going to do a few more repeats before I knit the garter edge on the end. I want to be sure it is good and long because I know that if it is even a little too short I will not use it much. That would be a shame in the light of the amount of time that has already gone into it. It has to be long enough for the weight of the ends to keep it from falling off when I wear it so I won't have to be fidgeting around and pulling on it all the time. Also I'd like it long enough to be able to wrap it around my shoulders with a long enough tail that it will stay put. I was tempted to finish it up today so I could have the pleasure of wearing it to church tomorrow, but better to put in a little extra time now to get the shawl I want rather then something I'll never be happy with. Besides, I still have plenty of yarn left. Too bad the color photographs so poorly, because it is actually very nice in person. I think I will really enjoy it. Will the next shawl be Icarus or Peacock Feathers? Only time will tell, although I am leaning toward Icarus because it is a lot simpler although similar in structure. I'm planning to bring along a shawl in progress for the drive to and from Florida next month and this is one that might travel well. The body of the shawl is pretty simple.


As soon as either one of these projects is done I will be able to give more love to my Monkey Socks. I still have not touched them since Denver, even though the pattern is really very nice to knit. They are in a beautiful shade of Koigu. This yarn really is very nice to knit with. I may not even mind the hand washing because these socks will be so pretty. I thought that after I came home from Denver I would be putting my hand knits away for the season, but I am still wearing my wool socks. I wish I had finished these so I could wear them today! I'd like to have these finished before I go on vacation next month. I'll be bringing socks to knit in the car, but I'm thinking something with a nice rib, not too complicated. I've got a couple of patterns in mind from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road that I'd like to try.

Oklahoma Spring

We're experiencing a real Oklahoma Spring this year. Last weekend and the week before we reached the mid-eighties. This week highs have been in the 50's, with snow flurries yesterday afternoon. The azaleas, tulips, and daffodils are blooming all over town. We may get a hard freeze tonight, although then again we may not. We'll be hosting an Easter luncheon for Shana's family tomorrow. Nancy was planning to have one, but they have been in the throes of kitchen renovations and she decided we'd better have it. Twelve people for fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and biscuits. We're going with three tables in the sun room, which I will make up tonight. We won't have time tomorrow.

There has been a little bit of crafty goodness this week. I finished some little socks for Baby Vivian. I used about half of the leftovers from one pair of adult socks and just kind of made a pattern up. I have leftovers of quite a few different colors, so I may turn out a few more. I also did a little work on her crocheted blanket. My hands are still sore after my bike wreck, especially my right thumb. Crochet is not too comfortable, so I have not done as much as I had hoped. I've got most of three repeats of nine done. Then it gets a picot border. I guess that makes it about 25% complete. The Kimono Shawl now measures a little over 5' long. In another foot or so I may call it a day and get it finished and blocked. The monkey socks are still just a few inches into the first cuff. I haven't even picked them up since I got back from Denver. My main excuse for that is that I really thought when I got back I would not be wearing my wool socks again until fall, so I was not in a hurry to get them done. Ha Ha - I am wearing them this weekend. Also I wanted to have something done for the baby before the middle of the month.

I doubt that I will get any of my projects finished this week. We may camp again next weekend, which will give me about four hours of car knitting. Unless I bring a really simple sock with me I probably won't do any knitting once we arrive. The main plan is to get in some cycling miles (without a wreck) and a good hike while we are there. The next week will be the Flower Power Bike Ride in Muskogee (I need to give our entrance forms to a friend tomorrow and I have not even decided on a distance yet), so I will have a few hours of car knitting time but probably won't have any other time during the weekend. We'll be coming back Saturday night because some of our group will be participating in a marathon on the day after. The rest will be going out to cheer. I will have a little knitting time during the week, if my hands feel OK.

Cycling With the Stars

In celebration of spring (yay) Shana and I took a weekend camping trip to the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. The plan was to drive down on Friday afternoon and come back Sunday but that was not to be. The entire state got a drought-ending rain (5" in Oklahoma City in one day) Friday, with liberal lashings of tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds. We thought it may not be quite comfortable in a tent. We decided to drive down Saturday morning instead. There is a new tent, which I christened The Taj M'Shana. It's the Coleman Ozone, which features excellent ventilation options and what seem to be very well thought out water protection strategies. Also it has an inside center height of 73" compared to my Timberline's 4"10. The floor space is 15' x12', compared to the Timberline's 8"9" x 7'. To be fair, the Timberline weights just over 7 lbs, while the Ozone weighs 18 lbs. Different tents for different purposes. The Ozone would be nearly impossible to put up alone, but it was not designed to be a one man tent.

Once we got our camp set up we rode our cycles over to Meers (a little under 10 miles) for a burger. About halfway there I had a little wreck involving a cattle grate and some shadows - I did not see it until the last minute and the grate was not of a design that felt comfortable riding over. I jammed on both breaks, locked the wheels, and skidded to a stop sideways and on the ground. A couple of cyclists came to see if I was OK - of course I jumped off the ground saying "I'm good". Shana and I went on to Meers, where I cleaned up my leg in the Ladies' Room and iced down both hands before and during lunch. My knee and leg look pretty bad, but my hands got the worst of it. My left hand is swollen and one bruise from wrist to first knuckle of my middle two fingers, and my right thumb is about the same. At first I thought I might have broken a bone in my left hand, but I think it should be just fine, although yoga and knitting will have to wait a bit. And oh yeah - if you know you'll be cycling back from Meers don't order the onoion rings. A word to the wise.

Otherwise the weekend was great. We went for a hike on Sunday, enjoying the beautiful clear skies and the wonderful scenery. On the way to the trailhead we saw longhorn cattle, Elk, Bison, and prairie dogs from the car. We hiked to Post Oak Falls, which is kind of a seasonal thing. The falls is small, but lovely. It's about a 40 foot drop of water into a pretty pool. After a hot walk through the canyon the area around the falls is an oasis of coolness. It's only there in the rainy season, so we were fortunate to be there this weekend when there was plenty of water. We went a little astray on the way there and were almost ready to give up, thinking we may not be on the right trail and not wanting to get any more lost than we were. In the Wichita Wildlife Refuge the ground is so stony that a trail can be very hard to see. I'm glad we kept on going. On the way back we were relaxed and chatting on the trail, when we came around a corner and I heard something "puffing" behind a bush. It was a male bison just a few feet from the trail, and none to glad to see us. I called to Shana behind me to be careful, and we moved right along, stopping to take this picture only after we had gotten a bit farther away, and he had turned and walked a little ways up the hill.

Return of the Prodigal Blogger

I'm back from my road trip to visit the fam in Denver. I was lucky enough to have perfect weather the whole week, even for the drive both ways.

I got a few snaps of everyone in the kitchen one night. You can't tell from the picture but I am sitting on Richard's lap - a dangerous place to be. I think I can fairly say that a good time was had by all. Richard and I went to the movies (Amazing Grace - and it was excellent) shopping, and hit every Starbucks in Brighton Colorado except the one on Bromley Road which has inadequate curb ramps for people with disabilities. Last time I visited we went to that one, and wrote to complain to the company about it. No response, and therefore no visit from us.

I cooked every night, and I must say the menu was a good one. Everyone was pleased except my poor niece, who came for dinner the one night we were having fish, which she did not care for. Oh well, she was just unlucky. Mom stocked her freezer with the leftovers and I had fun cooking in her kitchen.

My niece and nephew were able to arrange their schedules so I got to visit with each of them, and Mom and I had a girly lunch and shopping day in Boulder. Mom and I visited Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins where I scored some urgently needed beautiful purple hand painted sock yarn and some Plymouth Encore in girly shades to make a couple of sweaters for for the soon-to-arrive Baby Vivian, my first grandchild. It's a really nice store with all kinds of goodies. In addition to a comprehensive selection of yarn, they have roving, spindles and wheels, all kinds of classes in fibre arts, and a great selection of publications which included not only how-to and pattern oriented books, but also some art books to inspire creativity.

Over the course of the week we had Chinese food, we had ice cream, we played Rummicube, sat in the park in the sun and told jokes. I had lunch at Richard's place. Mom and I had nice quiet evenings watching TV, visiting, and knitting, and I got all rested up. In short, a good family visit.

I took The Amazing Roxanne with me but of course I have no pictures of her at all because she hides from the camera. She was a good traveler and very well behaved. She had a great time. Richard and I took her everywhere we went. That was much more to her taste than her usual week when she waits around for people to come home from work. There was always someone around who wanted to pet her and tickle her - never a dull moment. She was exhausted by 8:00 every night.

Outdoor Life

At last I got out for a ride on my bike. Shana and I met up with some friends and rode around Lake Overholser. We only went around once, but I feel so much better for having been out riding. It felt so good to be out pedaling in the fresh air again. The beautiful day came in the very nick of time; my mayonnaise white under-the-sea leg is nearly the same color as my car. It's about time I went outside to play. Tomorrow will be rainy, so I won't ride again this weekend. I'll probably try to get to the gym. After my ride was pretty clear I'll need to build up my stamina, so back to the gym I go.

We got to see a white pelican floating on the lake. I don't think I've ever seen one here, and I have to assume it was just resting on the way through from somewhere else. It was too far from shore to get a picture. Riding around the lake it was obvious that the water level is very low. Unless we have an amazingly wet spring I don't know how the levels can recover before the onset of the hot weather. In light of the fact that this lake is a water supply reservoir for the city it's a sobering sight.

After our ride we had to replenish our store of energy at Jim's Diner. As you can see, it's not only my legs that need to be brought back into riding condition. And of course, after our meal we did a little shopping. At the bike store. Shana bought a tire pump, and I admired sunglasses, but made no purchase. Yet. Turns out that the athletic sunglasses of my dreams will not be nearly as expensive as I had feared. If my spring bonus is big enough I'll surely be placing my order when I get back from vacation. Suitable sunglasses will make a big difference for long rides. We had brought a new rider in with us to infect her with bike lust and introduce her to our bike guru. Our favorite bike store is tiny and it was crammed with customers, bikes for sale, and repaired bikes waiting to be picked up by their owners.

Sunny Friday

It's a beautiful warm sunny Friday - that will not be at all remarkable in a month or two (in fact we will be whining about the heat), but today it's a treat. I should be outside enjoying it or doing something productive in the yard, but instead I am inside fooling around on the computer, doing laundry and a little housework so I can go outside and play all day tomorrow. The plan is to get everything boring done by noon tomorrow, then meet up at the lake to go out cycling with the WAACO's. We'll ride around the lake once or twice, and maybe stop in for a snack at a local diner. What could be better? I'll squeeze in a little walk for Roxy and me later - a sign of the good behavior to come. I've let the cold weather immobilize me and now I will have to pay the price of getting back into shape for summer fun.

I noticed a curious feature of the demonstrations against W in Sao Paulo this week. Some protesters were carrying signs where W was featured wearing a little mustache to make him look like Adolf Hitler. Odd, in light of how many Nazis took refuge in Brazil after WWII. I suppose they know what a fascist looks like. This is not at all meant to say that I do not approve of demonstrations against W. Quite the contrary.

For one golden moment I thought that if I was right there holding her on my lap instead of running across the room at her I could fool Roxy into believing that the camera is not an evil creature out to steal her soul and kill her, but obviously I am not winning. Instead, the gymnastics required for me to take a picture of us together with the dog facing front have resulted in a series of pictures in which I look like a bald crazy person. Not that there's anything wrong with that... How I envy people all of the sweet doggy pictures with the dog looking into the camera. Roxy has such a funny grin when we get ready to take a walk; I would just love to have a picture of it but that will never happen.

In crafty news, I have taken a baby step towards starting my Phoebe sweater. I went to my local yarn store to get needles. I do try to give them the turn instead of ordering on line, but as often as not I am disappointed. I wanted size 6 & 7 24" bamboo circs, but they did not have any in stock. I settled for some Bryspuns in the right size (which I actually think I will really like), and bamboo DPN's in the correct sizes for the sleeves. I hope I am not sorry, as my gauge may change with different kinds of needles. I may still order the bamboo circs on line, or maybe order the Bryspun double points from Elann. I do understand that my local store cannot be expected to have all sizes of all needles in stock at all times, but it's hard to be a loyal customer when they seldom have the sizes I want. They do seem to have lots and lots of size 10+ and 49" circs, giant needles in all kinds of materials, and even the needles that light up (grouse, whine, sulk). If I don't start the sweater this weekend I will still bring it to Denver to play with while I am there.

I've started on my Denver traveling list. If I don't stop soon there will not be room for me and Roxy in the car. Between the possible extremes of weather and all possible choices of projects/reading material I think I am seriously overestimating what I might possibly by any stretch of the imagination use. It's funny, because when I fly I pack quite lightly and seldom wish I had brought any additional items. Plus not only am I going to a civilized area where I can surely buy whatever I forget, but I will also be able to borrow most of what I might need from Mom. We are not so different in size that I could not find something to suit me in her wardrobe. I guess it's just a manifestation of my usual "trip anxiety". I keep standard lists of needed items for my frequent destinations so I won't leave without something, but most of those trips are bike events or camping where the list of needed items is long and leaving something behind could be very inconvenient.

Yee Haw

This week I had the pleasure of being treated to lunch at the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum. My whole department got to go at company expense because we've been working like crazy people and meeting our monthly deadlines in spite of being down one whole person for the last 2 months (plus some) at the same time as we picked up a massive acquisition and ran 1099's. The museum has a world class collection of western art, along with cowboy and rodeo memorabilia. Some years ago it had a major renovation which not only improved the galleries tremendously, but also added several meeting rooms in various sizes and kitchen facilities. A lot of fancy local functions and benefits are held here, but I did not know you could have lunch at the museum, and tea later in the afternoon. The menu includes a variety of salads and sandwiches, plus a nice buffet. We had the buffet, in the interests of having a fairly brief luncheon. I think I'll be back another time, maybe for a Sunday lunch. Shana was very interested in checking it out and we'll surely meet for lunch some time, if we don't get out there for the Sunday Brunch.

Today's adventures included a trip to Pets Mart with Roxy - too bad I didn't bring my camera along today. I shopped the cats up for adoption and Shana shopped the birds. Cats and birds are not on our shopping list due to allergies, but we do like to admire them and indulge in the fantasy. We both admired the variety of tiny dwarf hamsters they had, which are not really on the wish list for either of us in spite of being the cutest things ever. Roxy got a new squawky duck, some of her favorite food, and a bag of chews. It's her favorite store.

The rest of the day will be devoted to cooking - Aunt Rita is here and after church tomorrow we will be going to visit Shana's Aunt Anne. We will not be welcome without cookies! This time it will be Paula Deen's White Chocolate Chunkies . They are really easy to make and just yummy.

For the after church potluck tomorrow I am making a Banana Cake with Quick Caramel Icing from the Cake Mix Doctor. Shana is bringing some spicy glazed chicken legs and a pan of "overnight" chicken enchilada casserole. I'll also be shopping around the web this weekend and next week for some fun recipes to take to Denver for my annual family visit. While I am there I get to do some family cooking, which I don't do much of anymore, and Mom gets to eat someone else's cooking. It's only fair - when I was a kid I had free run of the kitchen at all skill levels. Mom should have some of the benefit of the resulting passable cooking skills. Who really knows how she lived through my early experiments! I do remember she pointed out to me that garlic salt was not a good addition to scrambled eggs, although in general I think she pretty much let me experiment at will.

My crafty efforts are still going into the same three projects, none of which are showing enough photogenic progress to warrant another picture. This would not be the case if I was working on one project at a time, but too bad. I'm not. I think tonight I'll get the gusset and part of the foot done on the second striped sock, and tomorrow evening maybe get the heel turned on the second Parting Ways sock. I'm not loving the heel flap on this one because it's patterned going both ways and I have to read every line. It's a six line repeat as it is, and for the heel that makes it a twelve line repeat. With no charts, so I can't just glance at it and get the sequence for the row. This seem a lot of work for a sock. I still think I'll make it again, and in a plain color which will highlight the pattern because it is very pretty, but I can't imagine ever getting to enjoy this heel. On the other hand, the Phoebe sweater has cable patterning down the sleeves and I think this is a valuable bit of experience for it, even though it is faux cabling. The Kimono Shawl does not look substantially different from the last picture. I think I've only added about three inches to it this week. It's slow, but so far I am not bored with it, and it is still good TV knitting. I keep wrapping it around my neck to see if I am at the halfway point yet. Have I started my sweater yet? No, I have not. This week I am going to check the needle size, pick up the ones I need if they are not already in the arsenal, and start swatching. I feel Fear of Project breathing down my neck, so I'd better get on with it before I lose my nerve. I definitely want to have this started before I leave for Denver.