monterey, part 2

Just as many photos as yesterday, I suppose.
I'm a couple of days behind on replying to comments, too...sorry...but I will take care of that as I soon as I post this.

Where did I leave off. Oh. We were heading out to dinner last night.

Wellp, MyFavoriteKid realllllly wanted to go The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and since I knew that MrPickyPantsEater would be into the food there, I had no problem complying. Besides, I knew that they'd have a killer pomegranite margarita on tap for Mommy.

Now you know this place is gimmicky, and I know this place is gimmicky, but lemme tell you....MyFK thought this was one of the greatest places on earth, and I just got a hoot out of watching him enjoy it.

He has just seen the movie for the first time this past year, I think, and so every single item in the place was a novelty for him. The list of every dish you can make out of shrimp is painted on the wall, the cocktail menu is on a ping-pong paddle, there are framed "family photos" of Lt.Dan on the wall, plus display cases with various costumes from the movie, etc. The waitress came by and asked him trivia questions, and he knew all the answers. It was pretty comical.

(And that's all I got to say about that.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, so this morning it was complimentary breakfast in the room.
Sweet. (I never want to leave this place, I tell ya').

Then off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It would seem that perhaps we spent an unusual amount of time there. An employee that we had seen early in the morning caught us later in the afternoon and said, "Wow, I can't believe you guys are still here! Having fun?"
And I couldn't believe how we could NOT still be there.
There was SO much to see, and if you really do stop and look, and take the time to read stuff, and see feedings, and talk to the people that work there so you actually learn something, well.....honestly, I dont know how you couldn't be there for as long as we were. We didnt even give the final section a thorough pass because we were so wiped out!

What we were most excited to see was the new Sea Horse Exhibit.

There's the type of seahorse we were expecting. The more "typical", yah?

But get a load of THIS guy:

And you should see him when he's hiding in the seaweed!
(okay, well I guess in that case, you would NOT be seeing him)

We caught several feedings, our favorite being the Outer Bay Exhibit and the "fast feeders" (dorado, tuna, barracuda, etc). But we also really like watching the Sea Otters chow down.

Hey, and I learned something new. Did you know that River Otters mark their territory with "spraint"?! As in, like, "it's kinda like sprayin'? but it AINT?!"


They actually had a sample whiff for you to take, if you can believe it---hahaha.
(not pleasant)

My favorite exhibit, just as it was the last time I came here, what...8 years or so ago?
The jellyfish exhibit.


One thing that is really great about the Monterey Bay Aquariium is that half the place is rigged up on webcams, so you can check it out yourself, too---right there from wherever you are ;-)

Okay, so after the Aquarium it was a rest at the hotel, some more wine and cheese, some more walking around the 'hood, and another dinner out. We head home tomorrow, but for tonight, we're enjoying the place.



Way fun :-)

spoiled rotten

This post will piss you off if you:
a) have dial-up and/or do not like photo-laden entries
b) are irked by the non-frugal

MyFavoriteKid and I are in Monterey Bay for a couple of nights, primarily to visit the Aquarium. I had one free adult ticket, compliments of TheBon, and I was able to get the kid's ticket cheaply by way of AAA. Every year I save up some money for summer happenings, and this year I did not send MyFK to daycamp, nor did I make any substantial travel plans....so, I decided to splurge on the hotel for this trip.

We're at the Spindrift Inn, right on Cannery Row, just a block or two from the Aquarium.

The bonus for me is that we're so in the thick of it, that I wont even need my car. Yay for that. It is pretty quiet even though we are on a busy street because I put us on the ocean side.


We're on the second floor, center.

The room is pretty lavish. Fireplace, featherbeds, big screen tv, marble baths with robes, etc...
There's a bay window with a bench seat overlooking the beach.


And complimentary binoculars, even.


We went exploring around the building (it's neat, because it's an old one), and found out there is a rooftop garden.



And then there's the complimentary wine and cheese in the lobby thang...


Ummmmm.....yah.....so....we're kinda living it up here.

We're doing the Aquarium tomorrow, so for the afternoon we tripped around the Cannery Row shops. We mostly cruised the art galleries here (there are many). Every single time I ducked into one, MyFK whined, but once he got inside, he dug every single one of them. He really spent time with the art he liked, commenting on it and all. Same with the art he didn't like, actually LOL.

We hung out on a pier and checked out some of the wildlife (not very good pics, but there are sea lions out there on those rocks)....



I found one of those stores that only sells socks, and well....I just LOVE socks....the crazier the better. I was mostly enjoying the fact that many of them had "Engrish" labels (here's just one, as an example):

And then last, but not least, we ended our shopping tour at this gem and crystal shop. MyFK kinda has a collection going. He's been doing it since he was a kid. He was so into it, that the lady behind the counter gave him a big fat discount and omitted sales tax, and even tossed in a free gemstone. She loved him. But not as much as we loved her dog.


That is Ozzie, and ohhhh my gawd he was just the sweetest thing on four legs.

We went to the general store to stock up on bottled waters and snacks (hey, even though we're splurgin', I aint payin' to restock that mini-bar, dang it!), and now we're just kickin' it in the room. We're about to head out for some dinner somewhere, and then we might check out the 3D-IMax shark movie, or maybe the scary creatures of the deep movie.



Have a nice night. I know we will. Tucked all in our little high thread count sheets and feather beds....
listening to the waves.....
awaiting the complimentary in room breakfast....
;-)
Sheesh. LOL

Ahhh, yes...I have an unfinished thought from an earlier blogpost, and I think I said I'd catch y'all up on it.

Earlier in the week, TheMostImportantGuy was bitten while trying to rescue a feral cat. This resulted in a trip to the ER for vaccines and antibiotics. As I mentioned in my post about it, the ER staff had left the waiting room television dialed into Animal Planet, nd just in time for it's NightTimeScaryAnimalsHaveAttackedMe shows.

I think that in that post, I alluded to the fact that we had a similar incident of inappropriate waitingroom visuals the following day.

It happened when I took MyFavoriteKid to the podiatrist. He has an ingrown toenail issue that had blown up to a degree far beyond my skillset to assist with. He also has a plantars wart that was not responding to over the counter treatments. We were well overdue for a trip to the doc's for some real help, and MyFK was completely freaked out about the toenail part. Like, he was imagining he had gangreen and was going to lose toes. That sort of freaked.

So I had done all of the typical reassuring. This doctor has experience. She is a specialist. All she does is feet. She's has good reviews from other patients. Here's a photo of her, and hey---she even looks like she is a nice person. Blah blah blah....all that.

We get to the appointment, I've completed the neccessary forms, and we are waiting in the lobby. We see one of the treatment room doors open, and hear the doctor saying she'll be right back, and we see her step into a different room down the hall to gather some supplies. As she does this, she leaves the treatment room door open, and MyFK and I now have a perfect shot of the chair that the patient is sitting in. It's sort of like a big armchair recliner basically, but all we can see from where we are stationed is this person's FEET.

And this person is missing at LEAST three toes. The ones that remain are deformed.

So much for my reassurance.

MyFK is trying hard to compose himself, and I am explaining (with no real knowledge or facts to back my ass up) what he is seeing (so of course, he is not buying any of this).

We finally get our turn with the doc, and she's looked him over, and has explained the options, and he is being logical and mature about it, and she is about ready to proceed with what basically amounts to a nail trim. Unfortunately, she is going to do this procedure with a tool that is looking far more industrial than our standard ol' clippers, and MyFK stops breathing, and tears start to well up.

Now, for the doctor, this seems totally out of the blue.

So I tell her that I am pretty sure he is responding to the fact that he had caught a glimpse of the feet of the patient before him, and I see the look on her face as she is processing this, and watching her face change as she is realizing WHAT he saw, and how it is that he came to SEE what he saw, and let me tell you....the doctor...well, she felt so bad....but I could also tell that behind her composure, that she was about to crack up laughing. I could see this in her, because I knew from the moment I met her that she is just one of these people that I would probably love to get to know better and have a glass of wine with. She's kinda "East Coast Open and Out There", she's probably about my age, and she has a kid of her own who is 10, and who was actually IN the office that day, because she didnt have day camp lined up for him that particular week (and by the way, on our way out the door, MyFK talked to her son and said, "I bet you NEVER get ingrown toenails." hahahaha).

Anyhow, the doctore. She THEN goes on explain to MyFK that this person's feet were like that before she'd even met them, and it was not her doing, and then....and I have no friggin' idea how we got there, because this all went so fast, but she somehow ended up using me and my missing leg as an example, and as a similar situation. I'm still not quite sure how that all went, it went whizzing by so fast, but she noddd to me as if to ask me if it was okay to use me as an example, and I nodded back yes, but like I said, I didnt even quite get how it was all working out! I just know that she understood, and MyFK understood, and that I had no idea what I'd just missed, but whaddya know, MyFK said he was going to be okay, and to proceed. I wasn't about to ask for a replay and break the flow. She snipped his nail, stuck a bandaid on it, treated the wart while they talked about basketball and what he was going to do this summer, and then tadaaaaa....he was cured. Every day he's talked about how better his toe feels and how great she was and how glad he is that, "he was lucky enough to see a REAL professional."
(yes, in quotes...LOL)

How am I doing here. I get awfully rambly when I am this tired.

Anyhow, the point of the story was that we had two days in a row of seeing bad things in waiting rooms while waiting to see doctors...the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What I did today?
Slouching. A whoooole lotta slouching.

I was going to wake up early and drive to San Francisco to meet up with my sock knitting group, but I just couldn't do it. It's about an hour drive each direction, and for 1-1/2 of hanging out, and then going to a yarn shop so I can be tempted into buying more yarn, which I absolutely I am certain I am not needing any more of.

I stayed home with TheMIG and we watched the Tour de France, then all of the extras from the dvd we'd watched last night, and I pretty much did laundry and cleaned up and got to packing things up, because MyFK and I are going to take off for a couple of days.

But the hotel has wi-fi....so I'll see you there ;-)

snaps on saturday

All taken this afternoon, a few seconds apart, while standing in the front yard of TheMostImportantGuy's parents house....





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In terms of the headaches today? A wee twinge behind the right eyeball today, but hooray! No migraine.

MyFavoriteKid left with his dad today for the weekend, so today I spent the whole of it with TheMIG visiting TheMIG's dad (TheMIG's mom has taken a little ClubMed vacation with the niece that visited us recently).

The evening was spent with take-out Thai food from a new restaurant in town, watching Pineapple Express on dvd, and...well...."date night". ;-)

the migraine in my brain stays mainly the about same

Ha! (I can't believe I just wrote that title--what a DORK!)

Well, I made it dance class last night, and I led the warm-ups/matwork. I actually felt quite a bit better by the end of class, but when I woke up this morning, I was right back in the throes of it.

Somehow today, I managed to still get some things done: AAA office to pick up a tourbook and some tickets for a little trip next week; to the pet store for worms for the gecko; grabbed some lunch for MyFavoriteKid--admittedly fast food, though; off to get a massage (I know...my horrible life...but I'd booked it weeks ago, and actually the timing could not have been better), and really it was more like the P/T type of massage, the whole of the time spent trying to fix my shoulder, which has been out of whack for almost a month now; then home to ice my shoulder.

I still had a splitting headache for the balance of the afternoon, but I managed to watch The Tour de France (I've watched every day and am totally digging it), I finished the final chapters of the book I'd been reading, I spun on the spindle for a little bit, I knit few rows on the scarf, and then I baked a chicken and roasted some veggies to make up for the McDonalds I had treated MyFK to earlier.

I dont know how I managed all of this with my head hurting so much, because honestly, I really needed to be flat with an eye mask and earplugs. But I did it. And I was a bit cranky and irritable while I did some of it (sorry). And now I want to go to bed and hope that tomorrow brings something completely different.

Meanwhile, if you've made it this far (or if got down here by way of scrolling for photos), I'll treat you to something pretty and pink.


This is the shawl that I worked on in the spring.
Here's a ravelry link for details, and here's a link to the pattern.

I modeled it for this next photo....


...but in the end, I gifted it to my friend Martha.


The shawl turned out lovely, but the color didn't suit me much, and it didn't fit my frame very well. Martha is wee-petite, and she had admired the color since the she saw me working on the very first rows, so it went to a happy home.

I could see myself knitting this shawl again in a different colorway and perhaps making it a bit larger. I really enjoyed the knitting process, though. The center square was knit first, then the border was picked up and knit all the way around, resulting in a square shawl. That type of construction was new for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok....Eyes are burning, head is throbbing, so now I'm outta here ;-)

this post brought to you by the letter "m"

...for Migraine.

*grumble*

I'm gonna have to catch y'all on the flip-side. I'm going to go take a rest now, because I somehow have to manage teaching a class tonight.

Oh, and I did spin a bit today. Not much. Just enough to keep my commitment to spin daily during le Tour. Unfortunately, nothing is much fun to do with a migraine, though!

See you tomorrow.

more about that cat

I try to reply to comments by making my reply within that same day's comments. So if you ever ask anything that looks like a question in your notes to me, that's where to find it (except that I was 3 days behind, but now I am not, neener-neener).

In response to yesterday's post, however, a couple of people asked about what happened to TheFeralAttackKitteh, so I figured I'd expand some here for y'all.


TheMostImportantGuy is very level headed and sensible, especially when it comes to stray cats. He is also very compassionate when it comes to them, too. He lives in a neighborhood where there are many feral cats, and he works with another neighbor to always keep food and water out for them. He has used traps to secure the females so he can bring them in for spaying, and he has brought me home one very tiny kitty who now lives with us (Gaara). It was me that brought home the second stray kitten (MrDarcy), but TheMIG rallied for my keeping him instead of working to get him placed. All of TheMIG's pets are rescue animals.

Ok, so anyhow. More about this FeralAttackKitteh last night.
*sigh*

We saw him as we were leaving the parking lot of a supermarket, on our way to pick up MyFavoriteKid from basketball practice. Super cute kitty. Teen-aged kitten, had a few months on him. Not super small, but not fully grown, for sure. Black and white, and clearly looking around for food. I pulled over, and TheMIG got out to see if he could attract him. The kitten was SUPER friendly. Like tail in the air, running towards TheMIG, meowing like "hellllp meeee" it looked like, and to me, he was behaving like a domesticated cat that maybe had gone stray. He rubbed up against TheMIG's legs and hands, and he didn't flinch at all when TheMIG picked him up and carried him towards the car. I asked if he might be someone's pet, because there are houses nearby over a big wall, but TheMIG said the cat was all bones. The kitty just leaned right into him, and looked happy.

Until he got IN the car.

I have no idea what we were thinking to put a cat like that in the car, to be honest with you. Maybe BrainFartDust was in the Indian food we had just eaten. I dunno. But we did it. I would normally NEVER transport an animal without a crate of some sort. I crate my own pets every single time I put them in my car.

The poor thing just freaked. And after scratching and biting TheMIG, he started throwing himself really hard at the windows. Someone was gonna get hurt really badly, and yes....we do know about the rabies and the keeping the cat and all that...but we opened the door so he could get out and run away before he hurt himself.

Now, immediately after the mauling, we picked up MyFK from practice, and then headed back to the house (TheMIG saturating himself with hand sanitizer the entire ride). He then got on the phone with the advice nurse to have his immunization records looked at, and that, of course, is when he was referred to the emerency room for cleaning, antibiotics, tetanus, etc.

So here's the thing. ON THE WAY to the Emergency Room, TheMIG made me swing BACK BY the supermarket, to leave TheFeralAttackKitteh some food!!! Cuz he felt bad for TheKitteh!
:-(
We did bring a crate (and gloves) this time, so that just in case we saw him around we could nab him, but of course we didn't see him because I cant imagine he'd be stupid enough to come anywhere near us. An elephant never forgets, and neither does a feral kitty ;-)

TheMIG seems fine. He's got a little regimen to perform for the next few days (soakings and ointments and medications), but I think he's gonna be okay. He just arrived here, actually....and I asked him if he wanted to go back and try to find THE Kitten, and he even said no...so that means his head is in working order, too LOLOL.

And so that is that about the cat.

More about innappropriate waiting room sights tomorrow...because I had another one today! For now, g'night!

full moons and the e.r.

=So why bother telling you about "what I did today" when all the fun to be had was in the day's ending.


Yup. That's us, waiting in the very crowded emergency room (please note how nice I am, too....I shared my Kindle with the little patient).

TheMostImportantGuy, lover of all animals, especially the meowing ones, made a rescue attempt on a feral kitten. The poor dear was so skinny and so hungry that he was just walked on over to TheMIG and allowed himself to be picked up. Thing were great until he was brought into my car (without a crate---yah, we are just that stoopid), and the kitten went ballistic.

Lots of scratching and tear assing by the cat through the car, bouncing off windows, and then, he just took a bite. Or two maybe. I'm not even sure, it went so quickly. Plus I wasn't the one being bitten.

Off we go to the Emergency Room for 2-1/2 hours of fun, tetanus shots, and anti-biotics.



Warning: you might want to scroll past this next photo, if you aren't a fan of graphic grossness....it's take from off of a tv screen, and it is a staged shot, but it's kinda nasty gross.

Ok, so even though this is gross enough to warn you, I just HAVE to show you what I found the most irritating thing about my time in the waiting. They had two flat screens blaring the "Animal Planet" cable tv station. This, at first, was okay. Up first was a show about a guy who lived in a National Park for a chunk of time each year studying bears.
But after that?
A show about people being bitten by animals.
And then another show about people being hospitalized by animal attacks!
Both shows were complete with dramatizations and/or real footage of the attacks AND the hospital visits!


Just PERFECT for the waiting area of an Emergency Room, yah?!!

Other folks in the room seemed to be intrigued, but after an hour of this programming, I finally couldn't take it anymore. I complained to a nurse, and they changed it.
To Reno 911.

As we were leaving the hospital, TheMIG told me that there were FOUR other animal bite injuries in there tonight. Three other cats, and one dog.
Odd, aint it?! Full moon, you think?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other things I did today include:

• more Tour de Fleece spinning (on the wheel today, though)
• visits to the two convalescent hospitals for volunteer work
• getting some backyard junk deposited in the bulk disposal container brought in for our neighborhood
  
• a little bit of knitting on a handspun scarf
  
  
  there, does fuzzy/pretty make up for the blood shot?
• taxi'd MyFavoriteKid over to my folks for some swimming in the pool (although I heard it was more like a soak in the hottub), and then later to his basketball practice
• a bunch of other mundane household shit and errand running
  

But again, it ended with the trip to the hospital.
Can I go to bed now?

the incentive dress

In the last 5 years, I've packed on a whole lotta weight.

I am a user of crutches and wheelchairs.

It is my opinion that my mobility would be improved were I not schlepping around the equivalent of one big ass sack o' potatoes.

Seriously. In the last 5 years, I've gone from a being a size 10 to oozing up and over my size 16's (which for me meant a weight gain of 45 lbs).

Whenever I mention this here, people say I don't look that big, but that, you see, is because I am the MasterOfBlogPhotoIllusion (*mwahaha*):



Sneaky, eh? And I don't even know how to use photoshop or any of that crap! That's just me playing with clothing and lighting and angles and taking a kajillion or so photos of myself until I get one that looks acceptable.

Here's what I look like when someone else has the camera:


Much. Biggah.

So around mid-February, I decided to grab the bull by the horns, and shed a few pounds. Like 45. Ha. By mid-May, I'd lost about 15 lbs and went from the "can only fit in size 16's if the wasteband is elastic" pants, down to an actual size 14.

Then I stalled.
For weeks. And weeks.

Hence, The Incentive Dress.


I love it.
And I don't fit into it.
It's a size 12.

It was not available in my current size. But they did have the same exact style of dress in my current size, but in a different (less adorable) print. I tried it on, and it fit, and I verified that I like the cut and shape. But this green print that I love so much? It was only available in the next size down, and I was clooooose (but no cigar!) to being able to zip it up.

I was really hesitant to buy the danged thing, because I do not believe that one should spend money on the hopes of fitting into something. This is especially so because this was no cheap dress. I never spend this much on a dress (this was from Macy's...the rest of my dresses? Target. LOL).

As TheMostImportantGuy pointed out, if it was a cheap dress, it wouldn't be much incentive.
Good point.

So the dress hangs in my kitchen. I move it around from place to place. Like, I hang it so as to make it difficult to open the cabinet that houses the snacks. Or sometimes I hang it right smack in front of the refrigerator door.

If this little summer dress doesn't fit me until winter, I'm gonna be pissed.

blah blah blah

What I did today:

Seemed like a whole lot of driving around, pretty much...but if you are interested:

• Took MyFavoriteKid to meet his dad for a KidSwap at the self service dog wash, of all places (TheEx had never used the place before, and I'm a pro....plus, that used to be my dog he was washin' there, so I gave a tutorial)
• Picked up TheMostImportantGuy at his place, and went out for brunch.
• Back to TheMIG's place for a bit, where I got lost in my KindleBook, while he did a bit more settling in to his new apartment.
• An unplanned pit-stop at A Verb for Keeping Warm so I could pester Kristine with a question about indigo dyed fiber and what crocking does to spinning tools (which I can't find a good link for without getting a headache, but if you know what I'm talking about, do tell me....do you keep a spindle or bobbins that you JUST use for indigo stuffs?).
• Another unplanned pit-stop, this time at the cell-phone store so TheMIG could upgrade himself to one fancy-assed new cell phone that is supposedly powerful enough to solve ALL his problems.
• Took Riley (the DogDogDog) to the CrazyCrazyDogPark.
• Back to TheMIG's, 'cuz I somehow forgot my fancy Kindle there, as I apparently cannot imagine a day without it (even though I own the same damn book I am currently reading in paper print).
• And then home again, jiggety-jig.
  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news:


I've decided to do (my own) version of the "Tour de Fleece".
I say "my own", because I am certain that there are those participating that aren't doing the slacker version (like I am).

The idea, basically, is that I am going to take this:




and turn it into something this:


while the REAL TourDeFranceDudes do this:


To be (embarrassingly) honest, I don't really know what sort of goals other fiber spinners are setting for themselves. Knowing that would require my reading about it, and I can't do that and spin (and read my Kindle!) at the same time. Self-centered, I know. But I'm getting used to being a hermit. I also didn't even decide to do this until the day before yesterday LOL. Impulsive. That's me.

Anyhow.
The general gist is that you spin every day that the Tour de France riders do their thang, and you take days off when they take days off, and when they have their hard day of hill climbing, we are supposed to spin something difficult along with them.

Okay.
So MY goal is to spin along every day. I have never managed to put more than 3 days or so of spinning together back to back, and I am wondering what frequency will do to my consistency. And skill (I'm still reallllllly green---White Jersey!!!). I'm also going for my very first sock yarn. I tried to do this once already and ended up with a lovely yarn, but too thick for socks that I would ever wear inside of shoes (coulda maybe made a nice "house sock", though), and that was only a two-ply yarn.

I am now trying to spin a THREE-ply yarn thin enough to make socks, and out of a superwash wool, no less (a bit more slippery). Oh, and on a drop spindle. So for those of you reading along that don't do the fiber-thing, I am basically using a spinning top with a stick attached to turn fluff into THREAD, and then spinning three of those threads together to make something about the girth of kitchen twine (or even better, less).

I do plan to also do some wheel spinning on the tour here, but the real goal is the danged sock yarn.

Not exactly Yellow Jersey.

(if you are a Raveler, here's the link for the Tour de Fleece gang)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My comments to your comments are back in that day's comments ;-)
XO

snaps on saturday

Happy 4th! :-)

Today was the first day since MyFavoriteKid has been out of school that I finally had nothing scheduled. I was so excited about it, but then sadly I woke up feeling like I had forgotten something. Was it a dentist or doctor's appointment? A trip to the vet? You know, one of those things you schedule months in advance and then sorta forget about, and then you fail to track the reminder post-card when it pops up in the mail?

I hardly wanted to get out of bed to check "the book" and find out what I was forgetting, but I did, and it ended up being that I had scheduled a lunch date with my friend Terri. WAY BETTER than the dentist!! Woohoo!!

It was great to hang out with her. I know her because she does bodywork and teaches healing arts (and I've gone to her for both). We've become good friends over the couple of years I have known her. This past year we've started to spend time together "outside the office". She joined our entourage when we went to Stitches West this year (she knits, too!!), and now we've become determined to book regular lunch dates. We went out for Indian Food and just hung out for a couple of hours, and then when we got back to the office, I taught her how to Kitchener off her first sock (how to finish off the toe and sew it closed nicely). I'd given her the yarn and the needles as gift a few months ago....I am such and enabler. She tried the first sock on and I think she is hooked.

When I came home, I decided to go back to my first day (probably my only day--you know how that goes) of "nothing":


A little time on the laptop, a little time knitting (I'm working on a scarf made out that handspun I made awhile back), and a little time with my absolute FAVORITE thing ever, my Kindle (it's an electronic book reader). LOVE LOVE LOVE. More on that soon. I just need to get less excited about it before I write about it, lest I sound like an infomercial or something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my comments to your comments are always posted back in the comments ;-)

Transcript: Me, Calling MyFavoriteKid's Cell Phone

MyFK: "Hello, this is (MyFK). Who's this?"

Me: "Hi, it's Mom!"

MyFK: "Yah, well WHADDYA WANT."

Me: "Hey!! Don't you talk to your mother with that tone!"

MyFk: "Heh. I'm not here. Leave a message!" **beeeeeep!**


I cannot even believe he got me with that.
Tricksie, them little Hobbitses....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What I did today:

Household Crap...laundry...dishes...more laundry...grocery shopping...still yet more laundry (did I mention laundry?)

Rescued Wildlife that was trapped behind the (fake) fireplace in my house. I had been out grocery shopping, and this is the scene I arrived home to:



At first I thought they'd brought in another lizard ("another lizard" as in: we've had a few), but then I started to hear this haunting fluttering sound beating against the metal panel of the fireplace. Lovely. Just lovely.
Poor dear.
Anyhow, tweety is now back in his element, and he didn't seem to have a scratch on him. There were no feathers in the house or in the yard, and I almost wonder if he didn't fly in here of his own accord.


Visited a friend and her baby, and dropped off one long overdue baby blanket:

Pinwheel Blanket
pattern link ~ my ravelry project page

The mommy-to-be had picked out the yarn while she was still pregnant, and the baby was born in December. I stared January 5th and didn't finish until June 15th! (I know I suck---shhhh!) This blanket is worked from the center out, so let me tell you, by the time I got to the outer edges, it was SLOGGING along. LOTS if stitches to get around 1 time. And because it is ruffled at the outer edge, well...that just doubled and tripled the fun! I had 1,590 stitches to cast off to complete this bugger! It measures 43" in diameter. Whee!

Potluck Dinner & Video Viewing

I did some dancing back in May with the bellydance troupe. We put on an evening length concert. We have a tradition of watching the video of the performance together the first viewing.

Over big plates of food.


Like, REALLY BIG plates of food:



~~~~~~~~~~~~
That was my day.
How was yours?

it's just like....

....a jedi mind trick:

*passes her hand in front of your eyes*

You don't need to know where I've been all this time. This was not the blog you were looking for. I've been here the whole time. Read along.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What I did today:


King Tut at the De Young in San Francisco.

I saw this exhibit the last time it came around, 30 years ago. Probably 32 years, really...I saw it in Los Angeles before it made it to SF. That would put me around age 10-12 when I saw it. This time, I was taking MyFavoriteKid, who just turned 12 a couple of weeks ago.

I spoke with my mom on the phone last night and mentioned that we were going to the exhibit today.

She says, "Remember when it came around about 30 years ago?"

"Yeah, I was there, mom."

"You were?"

"Yah." (ummmm...helloooo)

"Well, your dad and I went with Brian...." (a friend of theirs, and hmm, I dont recall his being there, actually...maybe my parents went twice??) "....and you know, see...there is THIS CURSE they say, and you aren't supposed to look at THAT MASK....because if you do, you get 7 years bad luck..." (isn't that a mirror, mom?) "....and your dad and Brian, well see....they looked at it. I didn't even want to GO."

Hmm. This is an interesing thing to ponder I tell ya'. See, the shit hit the proverbial fan in my family right around, ohhh...2 weeks after that little excursion? And life stayed shit for ohhhh, 7 or so years? And by shit, I mean shit of epic proportions, by the way. Like huge financial loss and job troubles on my parents side. For me personally, it was really stupid things like....well, since I was a minor I was able to have my records sealed, so no point in my digging that up again. But I had lots of bad luck, too.

So I tell MyFK about all this. Not about the record sealing. About THE CURSE and the BadLuckOfEpicProportions. I had asked him whether or not he wanted to risk looking at it or not and he said, "I dunno, mom. Those Egyptians were pretty mystical. And 7 years is a long time." (I didn't bother to tell him that the real curse involved things like death by mosquito bites).

And so all day long at the exhibit, he would run ahead of me going from exhibit to exhibit, room to room, with his eyes lowered, and acting like a Museum Ninja, making sure that we'd skip over the mask.

The funny thing was that after all that effort on his part? The damn Death Mask wasn't even part of this exhibit. It was kinda disappointing. It's like, we didn't reallllly want to see it, but we reallllllly wanted it to be there, so that we could NOT SEE IT. In fact, the exhibit was missing a whole host of artifacts that I had thought were included in this exhibit.

Oh, well. It was still good.
My favorite thing was the pectoral ornament that included the glass scarab.


The glass is natural, not man made, like most of their other glass items. It's only found deep in the Sahara, and the scientists believe it might have been created due to a meteor (even though there are no signs of impact).

Aliens. Aleins, I tell ya'.
Isn't that how you explain the pyramids, anyhow??