go wolves go!

A very exciting night! It was the first home football game of the season, and that means it was also the first field performance for the marching band (MyFavoriteKid plays clarinet).

Because this is a relatively new high school and last year was the very first year for the marching band, there were no formal uniforms for their first season.  They wore this. 

Black pants, long sleeved t-shirts printed with their logo, marching shoes, and gloves.

This year, thanks to a grant the music department received, the kids finally have their first real uniforms, and ohhhh I was so excited to see them tonight!

Squeeee!!!!

Their piece they are performing this year is a musical arrangement derived from the score of the movie Sweeny Todd.
MyFK is the "clarinet lieutenant" and the performance starts with him performing a clarinet solo. 

At the beginning of the season, the field show is short and less elaborate, but as the weeks go by, it gets longer and longer, and the choreography gets more and more complicated.  The next show is in two weeks, and I can't wait to see what they have added on!  They'll be entering into competitions near the end of fall, and they are now the largest marching band in the district. 






PS..I froze my butt off at the game (not to self: bring more handknits!  it already feels like winter out there!!)

hwah hwah hwaaaahhh

It's very late, and I am just home from dance class.  When I pulled up, I saw that my ass-hat neighbor's truck was parked in his driveway....and that he had left the cab light on.

I thought about being a good Samaritan and knocking on his door to let him know so that his battery wouldn't be dead in the morning...but that's all I did. 
Think about it.  

Hwah hwah hwaaaahhh....(I'm not sure how to spell that sound where you're laughing out of the corner of your mouth because someone or something just bombed, like a bad joke...but you get the idea, I suppose). 

Well, I think it's safe to guess who won't be knocking on my door for a jump start in the morning at least!

easily entertained

They are changing the lamp posts in my neighborhood this week, and I spent quite a bit of time watching the process as they went from pole to pole.  I love watching heavy equipment work. It makes me feel like a little kid playing with a toy back hoe in the sandbox or something!

outside my window

Take this morning from the back stairs at YeOldHouse, which is up against a hillside that sometimes feels like watching and episode of Wild Kingdom.

My best guess from my resources is that this is a Red-shouldered Hawk.  He was huge, and I saw him snacking on a little snake about an hour later.  For perspective, here he is un-zoomed, and he was big enough that I spotted him quite easily from the porch.

up. date.

Hi, y'all.  August is almost over isn't it.  Yes, I've been thinking about what happens next with the blog.  I have ideas, but my head is too full of dog related stuff today.

Just to clarify (since Kerry asked), yes...the neighbor who shot the dog is one of the neighbors at YeOldHouse.  This did not happen at TheNewDiggs. (phew!! right?!!)  But I am also not moving to TheNewDiggs for at least another 3 friggin' years!  I can't move there until MyFavoriteKid graduates, because if I do, I'd be moving him into a not so great school district (or I'd be lying about my residency, which is totally not my style and will never happen).  So here I live, at YeOldHouse, and TheNewDiggs is where I go on the weekends.
I know. Rough life.

So the update with the dog today is that I got news from the sheriff.  He was finally able to track down the neighbor (who has not been coming home much lately...hmmmmm), and apparently the neighbor pretty much admitted his guilt, and then realized he'd better shut up and get an attorney.  The sheriff has referred the case to the district attorney for animal cruelty, and I am all at once satisfied and completely paranoid and fearful of retribution.  It's a little crazy making. I feel vulnerable here, and I'm not sleeping here so well (which makes me even more grateful for TheNewDiggs, because I slept for 11 hours there Saturday night to make up for the lack of sleep during the week).

So that's where that's at.
And a few more days and hopefully I will have sorted out what blogging differently in August means to what happens in September.

 

knittas in da hood

I ran into a lot of knitters this weekend!  The first was a lady in the Master Gardner Vegetable Gardening series we've been taking.  She's from my town, and I hope she joins us at the local knit night we got going at the sports bar!

The second group was the table full of lovely ladies...

....that were making and selling all sorts of goodies at the Greek Festival (which was amazingly also within walking distance of the TheNewDiggs!).   Handknit socks, scarves, baby blankets, washrags, all sorts of everything!  Mom in the back was knitting with the straight needle in her armpit, just like that class I took with the Yarn Harlot a month or so back.  So cool!  They were also local, and I let them know about our knitting group, too.  I hope the group expands!

snaps on saturday

New-ish Mexican grocery store that is within walking distance from TheNewDiggs.
Awesome :-)

knitting some green stuff

I am utterly exhausted. I am not sleeping well because I am paranoid about the ass-wipe neighbor. I keep worrying he's gonna go all Colorado on my ass or something.  I know I am making stories up about in my head, but having this happen reminds me of what it might feel like to have your house broken into (which has not happened to me, knock on wood). I feel violated and vulnerable and anxious.

Thank you all for all the healing energy sent his way.  TheAnimalDoc says Riley is healing. He's not back to normal, but it looks like he is still healing. He seemed a little surprised by his progress actually, and I swear it's due the power of all the love and light and prayers being sent his way (there's your dose of granola for the day).  His pupil is dilating now (before it was fixed shut like a pinhole), and he does seem to be tracking moving objects in that eye, but there is still some blood in the back of his eyeball so he doesn't know yet if he is actually seeing things clearly or just responding to changes in light.  Another re-check in a week, and until them we continue with more meds.

Love you guys.
Really.
I do.

i'm tryin' man, i'm tryin'

Tryin' to live above the line, man.
Really.
I am tryin'.

(psssst...dude...i think it's "optimista"...
but...
whatever....)

hate me if you will, but this post is just for my own personal timeline

Riley is squinting....

...because he had a b-b in his eye....

...compliments of my next door neighbor who shot him in the face last night for barking too much.

Yes, the dog has been to the vet. No, the vet doesn't know the extent of the damage yet (Riley may be okay, but he may lose his eyesight. There is a slim chance that he may lose the eye altogether, but doubtful...more likely that he would just lose sight).  Yes, meds and procedures have been applied, and meds will continue to be applied for two weeks...and yes, we have a follow-up appointment Friday. Yes, the sheriff has been by here to take a report, and then again a second time too, to gather more info. Yes, there is a story that goes with how this all came to be, and yes, I know it is really screwed up of me not to blog more about it (but if you do recall, I've been trying to take August "off" in some fashion) ....plus I need to go now and put some more drops in the dog's eye.
And yes, go right ahead and send love and light his way.
I'm sure he would appreciate it; and so would I.
(thanks in advance)


I'm pissed off. I'm paranoid. I'm worried. I'm upset. I'm tired.

in lieu of...

Computer problems tonight (on the heels of more dog problems, I might add), I have no good photos to share via ipad tonight. Instead, I tell you about something I saw yesterday.
I was exiting the freeway, and a guy at the bottom of the off-ramp was holding a cardboard sign that read:
please help
need mandolin strings

-----
Sent from my iPad

more green things in my hands

First it was yarn, now it's...

...well, more yarn. 
Plus fabric.

This October I will be performing a duet (and a few other pieces) in a dance concert.  The other day my dance partner for the duet and I got together and got crafty.  I knit lengths of i-cord and she sewed up fabric leaves to attach to them.  We're going to dance with the vines :-)

nesting

Little dog buries herself into a nest of blankets and throw pillows....

snaps on saturday

It's been a rough week. Very little sleep.

One night, MyFavoriteKid had nightmares. Next night, the littlest dog was barfing (and there was a trip to the vet the next morning due to her having a high fever). Next night, the bigger dog was barking at a raccoon in the yard. The night after that, MyFK was barfing! Woot! The night after that, I had spasms in my "sexy leg" which resulted in my taking pain meds which totally zoned me out.

I was operating on very little sleep for a week, and by this morning, I had a migraine and was barfing myself.  UGH!
Well, thank the lordy for modern medicine.
I took it, and was healed (dance in the aisles, will ya'?!).

Thank goodness, because we had plotted there to be a little shindig at TheNewDiggs tonight.

It was Thursday afternoon of this week when I whined to TheMost ImportantGuy that I had failed miserably:
This weekend was the perfect opportunity to hostess something Saturday night, but I had not planned for it.
So he invited friends over.
And they came.
And it was awesome.

TheMIG had invited his bandmate, who also brought his girlfriend, and then the bandmate's sister and her husband came, too. The sister and husband are moving into our neighborhood in two weeks!  I am hoping this means even more fun times very very soon :-)

(blurry picture, 'cuz well...I was blurry!)
(TheMIG will have you spot the cute floating chihuahua head)

I served buffet style, and we ate at the bar (very tiny dining room table at the moment; our table won't come until just before Thanksgiving).

sorry, I forgot to take photos until after everyone served themselves

I made (L to R):
Roasted Asparagus (no recipe, just olive oil & salt)
Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad (I liked this, but it needed a smidge more dressing)
Orechiette with Greens, Garbanzo Beans, and Ricotta Salata (missing something, must tinker)
Grilled Tofu with Avocado Cream (which is an old stand-by here. Love.)
and, cupcakes from somewhere else...because I am not superwoman, and I am not much of  a baker anyhow ;-)  ( my first purchase from this bakery, everyone loved it)

We ate, we drank (a fair amount...one couple brought micro-brews, the other two bottles of wine), and we were very very merry. Lots of laughter and chitchat.

And I am still putting the new kitchen through it's paces.  I am happy to report that I managed to cook and clean and socialize all at the same time.  It was great, the food was great, I was connected with people, and I didn't end up with a nightmare shit-fest of a mess to deal with in the morning. The pasta pot was left soaking, but everything else is clean.

So.
Wanna come over?
I am so ready to be the more-fun-but-less-anal version of Martha Stewart for all of you! hahahhhahaha
Seriously. Invite yourself. Don't wait for an ivitation. Just call me, email me, txt me, leave a comment.... and say yer comin'.
I'm ready for ya', bitches!
(rotflmao!!)

Seriously.
Do it.

what's in my hands today

I started a new shawl with this today :-)
That's a good thing, because my knitting mojo has been missing for a few weeks.

more vintage-ish

Me and MyFavoriteKid at a Giants game. 2005 maybe?

Look at my lil' pip-squeak of a kid!  He is now 4 or 5 inches taller than me. Crazy, right??!

Kitty hat knit by me, one of the first things I made when I returned to knitting in my late 30's (after not having knit since my mid 20's) as therapy for my broken-in-many-places arm .

(not very) vintage me

Taken in Vegas at the Blue Man Group show, I believe around 2005...?  2006?

 
If I remember correctly (because the memory is indeed fading!), this was one of my first bigger trips after the accident as a one-legged lady.  I seem to recall this being the trip where I learned how to navigate an airport and get through security with all sorts of apparatus and metal in my body, etc....and I remember learning the difference between covering large distances (ie large casinos!) using crutches, a wheelchair, or a prosthetic (which wasn't fitting well).

This trip was with TheMostImportantGuy and our friends (another couple) who had invited us along because they were treating us to tickets for a Cirque du Soliel show while we there (Zumanity). For some reason, I think it was also around the time of my birthday...but I might really be making that part up. The white stuff around my neck is a fancy toilet paper scarf.  They had put a whole mess of rolls on long dowels and they were blowing the TP out like streamers all over the auditorium by using a lawn/leaf blower to shoot it out.  It was a fun show.

Anyhow. Ran across this photo the other day (cleaning up around here!). I just love it :-)

off he goes!

MyFavoriteKid's back to school today.
First day as a high school sophomore!

vintage me

Well, it's  not that vintage of a photo, but it's definitely almost another lifetime ago.

That's me during culinary school while I was on an exchange program trip to France (which puts the photo I believe at circa 2002...10 years ago! Gah!). 

I'm concentrating on a tourne of potato ;-)
I will have you know that I still own that potato peeler that is in front of me on the cutting board, too. Hahahaha (I can tell it's mine because of the green circle of tape around the handle; it's an OXO and it's da' bomb)


I'm doing some intermittent deep house cleaning/purging and finding all sorts of wack-a-doodle crap, so I'm sure there will be more.

one very special evening

Dead Can Dance at the Greek Theater tonight in Berkeley...

This is my third time seeing them, including once before at the Greek...but this was my first time seeing them with MyFavoriteKid. They played much (if not all) of the music from their new album, and it was beyond fabulous. 

Every time I have seen them I have felt like a human tuning fork, and my eyes well up.  Tonight was no exception.

snaps on saturday

Sorry if this first snapshot grosses you out (personally, I love this sort of stuff).
Vulture with squirrel breakfast.

Thanks for keeping our streets clean, VultureMan!

I think he's so pretty.  (I know you may not. To each his own.)

We saw the vulture on the way to the local nursery to pick up those smaller wine barrels for planting herbs in.  Then we went and got back to back el cheapo haircuts, and grabbed some el cheapo Indian food for lunch at one of our favorite casual places, Viks.

Best deal in town, I'm tellin' ya'.

After lunch we went and ordered a dining room table.  Not el cheapo unfortunately, but of very good quality. We've been looking at the tables at The Wooden Duck for over a year now (hence the cheap haircuts for the past year and why I am now dyeing my hair out of box from the supermarket).  The tables at this shop are made in house and from reclaimed wood.  They take awhile to make, but we should have it in time for Thanksgiving.

After the furniture place, we made a trip to the Cactus Jungle in Berkeley to buy succulents for the landscaping project thingy we are working on.

Then we went home and planted the succulents and the herbs in their various locations, and now I am getting my last fill of the Olympics.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ludmilla commented on yesterday's post wondering what that was all about.
No, it's not in an inside "joke"...just a reference.  The dance ensemble is presently rehearsing for a big show we are putting on in October, and the name of the show is "Vista Point". 
I didn't mean to leave people feeling left out.

a nod to the dance ensemble

hahaha!

What a TOTALLY lame picture! hahahahaha

A skinny tree in the middle and a bunch of blank space. hahahahaha
Oy.

But it's the only one I took today, and clearly I didn't try very hard. That was me, sitting and waiting while MyFavoriteKid was at the school id/yearbook photo taking station, as we made the circuit through registration. I was looking across the quad at the line for paying fees for materials or the band department or whatnot. It took most people 3 hours to complete the circuit. The fast pass I earned by volunteering yesterday got us through in about 50 minutes. Woot!

registration day

I don't have a photo taken today, but if you click here and look at the photo taken about this time last year, today was almost the same thing. 

That photo last year was taken while MyFavoritedKid and I were waiting in line for school registration. Today I was the person at the other end of that line.  I volunteered all day today as one of the people who take all the forms in (it was station number three of nine that the kids have to stop at).  Last year it took us almost 3 hours to get through the whole circuit.

I have to admit that I volunteered today with very selfish ulterior motives.

Volunteers earn a fast-track pass that they can use to run their kids through the lines more quickly ;-)   MyFK's registration slot is tomorrow morning.  I am hoping we breeze right through!

crazy things in photos

Crazy little toys on the shelves of my therapist's office (she sometimes works with kids/families).

Crazy photo of me and friend Sandy pointing and laughing at I don't know what, drinking wine on the patio. It was her first time seeing the new house. 

Crazy refinery fire last night in nearby, but not-so-nearby, Richmond.  TheMIG took this shot of the toxic cloud as seen from our neighborhood about 20 miles away. Ewww.

monday monday

Convalescent hospital (where I volunteer)...

....looks way nicer on the outside than it ends up really being on the inside.

a patio enhancement sort of weekend

With the kitchen remodel finally done, we are now on to cleaning up the yard.  Today (after many days of comparison shopping around and test-sitting) we invested in a patio set.

It's a USA made wrought iron set that should last us forever (my parents have something similar that is in perfect condition and it's almost 40 years old). Our favorite thing about it is that it is see-through enough that when we are inside the house and the curtains are open, it doesn't look like a big blob of dense furniture blocking the view from the house into the yard.  It's also ridiculously comfortable for not appearing to be.  It was the floor model out in the yard of a garden center, dirty and covered with cobwebs... but we got a great deal on it, and it washed up perfectly with just water and a sponge. The pottery thing sitting on top holds a can of fuel to make a little flame-y mini fire-pit sort of thing. I'll have to be careful not to torch the neighbors redwood tree that hangs into our yard.

Then we spent the rest of the day working on the beginnings of enhancing the 50-foot long and 2-foot wide border between the pool and fence. It's going from being a full on weed bed (thanks, former owners!) to being transformed into some-sort-of-something-else that has large planters with river rock in between and some trellises.


Hmm.
That's a lot of words for taking a break from writing.

snaps on saturday

A project today:

A little wine barrel gardening for the patio at the NewDiggs.  This one: red chard, parsley, romaine.  Two more containers to be planted (once the containers come in next week...the local garden center was out of stock).  The others will have some kitchen herbs and kale.

hrmph.

Kinda hard to post a photo when you don't take your camera with you all day.  Sheesh.

Instead, here are some funny sticky yellow post it notes from a favorite new blog of mine.

my day in pictures (with a few captions even)

Packed MyFavoriteKid a lunch, took this photo, then spent several moments wondering why I never make a second lunch at the same time for myself.

Went to the bookstore to buy a copy of a Yarn Harlot book for a knitting student's birthday and spotted Knitted Meerkats (did not purchase, but not for lack of cuteness).

Waiting for the therapist (where we basically discussed that lunch I never make for myself).

A pan au chocolate pitstop (not quite the same thing as the lunch, but hey).

Way too many photos of stuffed animals in the crane-game machine at the supermarket.

No photos of my teenager acting like a responsible adult and my parents acting like teenager.

something different for august

For awhile now, I have been getting comments that have left me scratching my head (and there have been several of them...so worry not, my friend... it ain't just you).  I keep wondering what people are reading or not reading into my posts, and the bottom line is, I just frequently find myself feeling extremely misunderstood. 

This can only be because I am not writing well. 

It seems like I have lost the ability to communicate my thoughts and feelings clearly. Perhaps it might be the mechanics about the way I blog that is preventing me from communicating clearly. I dunno.  But I need to look at that for a bit and see if I can figure it out, because I am finding myself sad and frustrated.  Behind the scenes here during most of July, there have been several times where I have considered that I just stop blogging altogether (or that I do the blogger version of hiding on a deserted bloggy island by starting another secret blog elsewhere).

It's hard to imagine quitting the blog. This blog, because I really do write it for me, is not only my online journal....it is my daily practice. It is in fact the only thing that I consistently do every single day, without taking a day off. I am not willing to give my daily habit up entirely, because I believe it is a good practice for me, so....


After much mulling over, I have decided that I am taking August to not write (here...I will be keeping a paper journal, like the good ol' days!), and to do some thinking. But to keep the practice of daily blogging going for myself, I am going do two things for the month:

* post daily photos
* perhaps reply to some of the (easier) comments that are long overdue for responses

I just won't be doing any actual writing until I do some thinking and reassessing.

So here I am with my photos from today ;-)

inspiration and happy things at Van Winden's garden center today

Have a good August :-)
xxoo