It's HOT!

This picture of the atomic clock is from the home office last night at just before 7 pm. Note the temp is 93 degrees. It gets hot in there. We need to decide if a ceiling fan or attic fan or something else might help. Good thing we usually aren't working at 6:56 pm.

Outside at about the same time it was 85+. I decided I love the magnolia tree I've complained about because it gives us much needed shade.
I wasn't able to capture the thermometer our friends gave us that is in the sunroom, but believe me when I tell you it was 90, although the sunroom ended up being the most comfortable room last night, and not feeling anything near 90. This morning the lighting must have been different, because I am able to capture the picture. It's just under 80 and beautiful in there right now - Thursday morning at 9 am.

We bought a light switch with a thermometer for our little master bath. Can you tell we like to know the temperature wherever we are? We've been known to watch the Weather Channel, and our friends used to laugh, but who cares what they think! The window is open after our showers and it's 81 this morning.

Can you see the elaborate web this spider spun? What you're seeing is the chimes to the left of the spider. Look close to see the web. I hope the spider is hungry because we have a bunch of tiny gnat/fruit fly things out front, but of course the spider put its nest out back. Maybe the bugs are out front because the spider is out back?

Whiners

Our little neighborhood library is only open on Tuesdays from 10 am to 5 pm. That works occasionally, but not often. I often have to send Will to pick up books I've reserved. Since it's very close by, it's not a problem. Today I can go because I don't have to be at my client's office until 1:00 pm, although I'll probably leave early because there is a city meeting about the future of the city (planning, developing, etc.) this evening at 6:00 pm. Maybe they are hoping no one will show up because many people are still at work or commuting home from work at that hour.


I'm on a Yahoo Group for our neighborhood, and what started out as informative has morphed into a bunch of whiners. The city cut down some trees and you should hear the whiners. Do they really think the city would spend the money to cut down trees if they didn't have to? They were either diseased or had root destruction problems. "But they haven't planted new ones"... blah blah blah. One guy mentioned that he saw a circus train go by and it reminded him of his childhood. I was able to go to the local train station's webcam and capture a picture of it. I should have expected it, but there was a whole post about how we shouldn't get excited about a circus train because circuses are bad because they are unkind to animals and the poster even included links to sites about animal abuse. This wasn't about the circus, it was about reminiscing about one's childhood. Then one person went on and on about how the Fremont police were like the gestapo because they made him move his garage sale off the sidewalk (even though we had been warned on this group of existing laws that would be enforced). He sure showed his ignorance about the Gestapo. Big deal, he had to move his stuff.

I am definitely one to stand up for what I believe, and I realize that sometimes tone gets misunderstood in email messages, but these people truly are whiners. All I hear is this: "Me me me but I can't volunteer to change anything because I'm too busy, blah blah blah me me me and all that matters is me and my house and once it's past my front door I don't care". Do they hear themselves? Shut up shut up shut up.

Here's the obligatory cat picture. Mowry loves to sleep in the cat bed on the floor under the bedroom window. And speaking of cats, Alex seems better. Still doing a lot of licking where cats lick, and looking forward to being done with his medicine. Alex has always been a hider, but hiding under the covers (or thinking he's hiding) was something new that he started when we moved back in November.

Alex hopped into the drawer last year when I was cleaning it! He's such a big cat - he now weighs 19.1 lbs. He's long, tall and also wide. Very furry - probably much of his weight is in fur, but he's also a bit of a wide load. Sometimes we call him "Locomotive" since he's like a train if he wants to get by you. Especially if he's in a hurry because the doorbell rang and someone might be coming over to torture him. It's never happened, (the torturing part) but you never know.

Monday after a BUSY weekend

What a busy weekend this was! We usually parse out our activities so they don't all occur in one weekend, but sometimes we can't do that. This was one of those BUSY weekends, but it all took place in Fremont, so no traveling to far reaches of the bay. Some of it took place right in our neighborhood, and even on our own driveway, so that was a bonus. We had the garage sale on Saturday, then Saturday evening we went to a BBQ at a friend's whom I have known since 1991 when I moved to Fremont. It was a fun time with good food, weather, company, etc.

Kathryn was coming by Sunday at 5 am to do her own garage sale, but she got here around 7 am which was much better. We weren't awake at 5 am, and there really was no need to be open that early. Since the Flea Market on the main street of Niles Blvd. opens at 6 am and people come by even earlier than that, you just never know. It was overcast most of the morning as it was on Saturday, so that worked well. It's sunny today, so we really lucked out having two overcast mornings when we needed them.

On Sunday Will and I walked into town, stopping at several garage sales on the way. I confirm - it is more fun going to garage sales than having them. I'm glad we had one, it was fun, we made a LITTLE money, (and did I mention that we have more room in the garage now?) but walking around was the best. We saw people we knew, people we didn't know, looked at interesting things, etc. Even if we don't buy a thing (does that EVER happen?) it's still fun to look, and now that we live here, it's more fun because we're walking around our neighborhood. That is just a small part of our "stuff", as there is still stuff in the garage, and always will be, but there's actually a path from the car door to the door that leads into the house!

We bought this Niles Fremont book for $2 at a private garage sale. Used and cheap is in the spirit of the weekend! It sells new for $15 - $20 depending on where you find it.
I found a pair of jean capris (my summer uniform) for 50 cents from a seller I've frequented for a few years now who is just my size and happens to be two blocks away from where we now live. They were a tiny bit big, so I'm hoping they tighten up in the wash as jeans usually do.

We moved here in November and haven't been able to find any of our refrigerator magnets or our iron since we moved. Guess what I found on Friday while rummaging thru boxes? The magnets, and an iron. It's not THE iron, but it's the only iron we have, so we now have an iron. Where the newer iron with the auto shut-off button is, I don't know, but at least we found an iron. Why we would have two is another question I can't answer, but I'm glad we kept this one! How did we survive without an iron? Good question. I refused to buy another iron or more magnets (except magnets from places we visited since we moved, and that's one, so we used the tacky magnets you get in the mail including one that looks like an American Express card) since I knew they were HERE somewhere! After we did our flea market/garage sales/walking we went to our neighbors house for fish tacos. He caught the fish, and the fish tacos were excellent. Afterwards, just in case we hadn't walked around enough, we walked around the block where I found a side table for the sunroom (it wasn't cleaned up yet when the picture was taken) and an apple peeler/corer since we have an apple tree with many apples, but my other neighbor told me her apples are too big for this gizmo, so we'll see.
I am actually glad it's Monday. Ask me again later when I have to drive home from across the bay after going to a client for the afternoon, but right now a "regular" weekday sounds good to me.

Garage Sales and Things

Today was the unofficial pre-Antique fair Niles-wide garage sales. We had one. Our friends came over with stuff to sell. Theirs is on the right and ours is on the left. We were going cheap - we wanted to get rid of treasures that someone else might want. We sold several bags (the kind you get at conferences), a few books, an old rusty birdcage with a little plant holder in it that the previous owner left, and that I liked, but didn't need or like where I had it. Our friends were going a little more expensive, but they had that kind of stuff. We had fun, and we lucked out since it was overcast until almost 11 am. I had a blister by 8:30 am. I don't know that we'd do this again. It's much more fun GOING to garage sales, in my humble opinion. We tried to get rid of the treadmill that she had given me, but we were told that if you put "FREE" as we did, no one wants it, but if you put $5 they will buy it. We did and they didn't.

The faces have been blocked to protect the innocent, and the guys did their share of work, but this was a great picture of them sitting in the garage while we worked!

In fact, Tom helped immensely by taking down the old brass fireplace screen. We bought this one at a garage sale a few weeks ago.

Now we're tired. We need to shower, take a few boxes to the local charity in the hopes they can sell the stuff we didn't, and then go to a BBQ. Is there time for a nap in there?

It's Friday

Tomorrow is our big garage sale (and hopefully I can get away to check out other garage sales) and then Sunday is the Niles Antique Flea Market. It's our first year living in Niles, so we'll get an inside view. Some people hate it, some people love it. We're far enough from the heart of it that it should be good. We moved some stuff into the "garage sale" pile. Maybe some more prep today. Then tomorrow we get up, throw on clothes and drag it all out onto the driveway. Too bad it's not shady there in the morning!

Speaking of shade, our neighbors across the back fence have a HUGE magnolia tree. I hate that tree. OK, I don't hate the tree, but I hate the leaves. They even get in our plants. Will just raked the yard yesterday, so this is NOT a good example. Picture a million more leaves.

The tree is actually quite spectacular. In fact, we went over to their house last night with a few heirloom tomatoes in tow, and introduced ourselves. I came home with two early girl tomatoes from them! They had about 3 or 4 tomato plants growing in their yard. From their yard, the magnolia tree is truly magnificent. They had an arborist look at it and it is in great shape. And due to its size, the city of Fremont won't let them do anything to it, so it's there! So instead of hating it (can I still hate the leaves?) I am thankful for the vast shade it provides. So while we're still in the yard, I was looking under the lavender bush and there were a couple of apples from the apple tree, and something black and slimey and disgusting. It wasn't moving but it was gross. I called Will who (no surprise) couldn't see it. I wasn't going to give up. I suggested he look from another angle (in a rather desperate tone, I'm sure) and he even used a flashlight, so he finally saw it and used the words "newt"and "salamander" while I thought "HUGE slug". Yuck. Gross. So a day or so later I looked from a different angle (read: the light was different) and suddenly I recognized it. I was laughing so hard. Here's what it was:

It's about 6 inches tall, green (as you can see) and not black, and it's a glass cat figurine that the former owner had left, and she didn't even like cats, but she did have all kinds of figurine stuff. It must have fallen under the bush! When you've found a possum (and a dead one, at that) a slimey looking "black" thing could be just about anything. AND, our neighbors told us that they have seen squirrels eating our avocadoes, so maybe it's not raccoons after all.

Aunt Mary had her surgery yesterday and is doing well. She was out and about on a few errands this morning. Go Aunt Mare!

I'm still working on the baby blanket. I think it's too small (not wide enough), but I also think it needs a border, so I'll either knit or crochet around it to make it wider. These multicolor yarns aren't my favorite, but for baby blankets they are fine.

Alex seems to be feeling better. We still haven't heard from the vet, so I called last night and was told they have the results but are waiting for the vet to have a few free minutes to call. Very strange. I guess they came out okay, or else there would be more of an urgency to contact us. Mowry looks quite comfortable. I'm not sure where the term "sleeping like a baby" comes from. Shouldn't it be "sleeping like a cat"?

Thursday

The cats were busy this morning. Cinders is helping Will work.

Someone managed to get the recliner reclined. We heard a sound, but couldn't identify it at the time. It couldn't be Mowry, he's resting on the chair by the window.

I told you it wasn't me. A little closer and you can see that I am sleeping!

A close-up reveals that I'm really sleeping so it definitely couldn't be me. (Or perhaps I'm just closing my eyes because I know you are about to flash my picture and I hate seeing stars from the flash).

I've really changed from my "Mug Shot" on the Furry Friends Rescue site last year. Notice my big ears and gray eyes. I'm much cuter now that I've filled into myself, but I was a cute kitten. I've gotten more buff (color) but some of the difference in the photos is the lighting. I used to have some gray in me, but you can't see that from the picture.

No sign of Alex this morning. He's probably busy sleeping under the bed in his favorite hiding place.

Mid-Week Stuff

Today is Wednesday. I didn't schedule much work this week. Yesterday was a professional association meeting at Wente Vineyards. It was a lovely setting with informative sessions. http://www.wente.com/.

I will have a small project for a client later in the week. I thought it was going to be ready today, but it's not. I have to go to another client mid-day tomorrow, so I'm trying to figure out if I should drive or take the train and light rail. Last time I took the light rail back from there I got to the train station just as the train was pulling away. Nice transportation system in Santa Clara. I'm enjoying a slow work week since I will be busy next week.

Tomorrow Aunt Mary, for whom this blog is named, is going in for surgery. She's scared (how can a chicken like myself tell her not to be scared and nervous), but my mom and another aunt have gone thru the same surgery, and they are okay. My mom tried to reassure Aunt Mary, but when it's you, it's hard to not be worried. Anyone reading this, please think good thoughts and wishes for Aunt Mare.

I'm working on knitting baby blanket number one of two. I bought size 11 circulars for my felted hat, but I can't find size 11 double pointed. I won't need those for awhile, but I was looking for them at our local yarn store and at Michael's.

Alex seems to be doing better, but we haven't yet heard from the vet about his test results from Saturday. While he was sick we fed him wet food. Since Alex was hiding in the closet, that's where we fed him. The vet said it was important that he eat.

The wet food caused a panic in the house - the other two cats came running to find out what that delicious unknown smell was. Wow - why aren't you feeding us this? I half expected Mowry and Cinders to go on strike when we stopped the wet food, but it seems they only knew to show up when there WAS wet food, but didn't think about protesting when there was only dry food. Thank goodness.

Tonight the trash goes out, so I need to do some yard work to fill the green bin (my weekly goal). We have no problem filling the gray bin (regular recylclables). Our trash bin is barely full since we recycle all that we can.

This weekend is the big Antique Flea Market in Niles. http://www.niles.org/ The neighborhoods have garage sales and we usually attend them, but this year we're having one on Saturday. I saved stuff when we moved for this - I could have given a lot away, but I thought it would be fun. The problem is, you can't GO to garage sales when you're HAVING a garage sale. We'll see how it goes. If we hate it, we won't do it next year. If we love it, we'll be back. I'll be sure to get out there with the camera on Saturday.

Cats, Garage Sales, Happy Things, Sad Things

At the Fremont Art and Wine Festival they gave out these bags. They are cheapo, but perfect for schlepping knitting around in! I'm amazed at everyone suddenly recycling and "going green". I've been recycling for years. How hard is it to throw your papers and cans and bottles and even cardboard toilet paper roll holders into a recycle bin? Some people I know are very lazy about recycling, but I feel good about doing it. We even hold an empty water jug under the faucet while waiting for the water in the sink to get hot for our coffee mugs, and then we use that water to water the tomatoes. It's just not that hard.

This morning we went to some garage sales. There is a very cool house closer to where we used to live (only about 2 miles away from here) that has an annual garage sale with several families participating. It's an old house with a HUGE lawn. I found a blouse with tags on (the woman bought it for her daughter and the daughter wouldn't wear it), and two old booklets - one about San Luis Obispo and one about Ortho pesticides. No date, but old and cool. Then we found yet another rocker for $15 for our sunroom at another garage sale. I think we're done, as in we have enough rockers, Will doesn't.

The cushions came with it and were made by the former owner. We found some other fun stuff, too, but this time we took the van, so we weren't doing our Clampetts imitation (see previous posts). We also went to Costco on a Saturday, but early enough that it wasn't horrible as it usually is on the weekend. I've walked out with my basket half full because I couldn't stand dodging people and carts and all that. But today we stayed with it!

We had to take Alex back to the vet for a test. The vet thinks he has a urinary tract infection and he had his "cat glands" cleaned on Thursday. I think it's hairball-related. He has taken to hiding in the closet near my shoes. He was so sad, but not as sad as a couple who came out hysterically crying because they had to put their beloved cat to sleep. We don't know these people, and we never will, we didn't even talk to them, but our hearts went out to them. It was so sad, it made me cry every time I thought about them. The good thing is, that when they are ready, they can get another cat, and I hope they will because they obviously loved this one and gave it a good home, and another cat deserves them, and it would make them happy.

The birds out back flew the coop, and just in time. You can see that the nest is falling apart. We will take it down later today or tomorrow. It was fun watching this - from the building of the nest, laying of the eggs, hatching, caring for baby birds, and then they were all gone.

Niles has "Hot August Niles" - kind of a ripoff of the famous "Hot August Nights" in Reno, NV. We are able to walk to it, which we did after the vet. Our main street (Niles Blvd) is closed off to traffic and old cars and their owners hang around for us to look at. Some very cool cars. Will's favorites are the 1958 Pontiacs.

I'm working on a quick scarf for blouses - shorter and thinner than an outer scarf using fun fur (Big Lots $1) and leftover Woolese from my niece's fingerless mitts.

I'm also working on a baby blanket with leftover baby yarn - a woman I work with is having twins! So I'll be making two! She doesn't know the sexes yet, but baby colors should work.
I have lots of extra leftover yarn that will also work for the next one. Interesting that of all the pics on this page, the plastic Michael's bag of leftover yarn came out the best!

I am knitting at Diann's tomorrow - she's trying to start a Sunday knitting group 2x a month. I need (and want) to start my felted hat. I'm about to give up on the blue/green socks that are posted a few blog postings ago. I love the yarn, but after ripping it yet again because it was too big, it's now too small. You'd think this was my first pair of socks, but it's my third.

The weather has cooled down, so it's time to go outside and do some work out there!

Monday

Have I mentioned lately how much Southwest Airlines annoys me? Hey, it's my blog and I can whine if I want to! I'm glad to be home and not waiting in some stupid A, B or C line to get on a plane. At John Wayne Airport in Orange County, it's hard to tell where you are supposed to line up. Once I figured it out, it became obvious, but if it causes questions, then it isn't working. And thanks to the annoying passengers who kept giving us dirty looks because we walked up to where we thought the line started and in fact, they were sitting in their seats holding their places in line. WHATEVER. Dorothy was right, at least for me, "there's no place like home". Oh and we have another trip planned for Oct 13 - 15 to AZ. Yes, it's on Southwest because darn it, they are still the cheapest and they seem to go the places we need/want to go.


The birds are getting so big. One tried to fly, or at least that's what it looked like it was doing. Cany ou see 3 little heads?

The nest is really not going to hold this growing birds for much longer. In this view from outside (which is why it's clear) you can't see the birds, but you can see the nest disintigrating and falling over.

Below is one of our tomatoes. That's a man's hand. It's a huge tomato. One of them was pretty good. They should be GREAT, but so far, they aren't. They have blemishes that need to be cut out and are just kind of odd, but the part I tasted was good.

Off to knit and watch TV. I'm working on a black scarf because I wear so much black. It will be a shorter one for blouses and sweaters, not for outer wear. It's black fun fur (which isn't as difficult to work with as I thought it would be - maybe the light color of the needles helps) and some black yarn left over from the fingerless gloves posted below. Some rows of fun fur, then switch to the other yarn. Nothing symmetrical for me!

Weddings, Birds and Annoying Airlines

We flew from Oakland to Orange County to attend my niece's wedding. I seem to be one of only a handful of people who find Southwest Airlines annoying (better known as Southworst Airlines), and who speaks up. The rest just sit by and accept that they are almost always late, and they lie - they have an excuse de jour - it's often mechanical; who would argue with that? Not even me, except when I once went to each gate where a flight was delayed (and there were several that day) and asked why that particular flight was late and each one was mechanical. I told them that that was scary and they either need to be more careful with maintenance, or they are lying. I think they tell us what they think we want to hear, and it works for most of the lemmings, but I want the truth. Our one hour and 20 minute flight was supposed to take off at noon and land at 1:20 pm. They quietly change the time on their board so no one notices. They make no announcements. Last I looked it was going to take off at 1:25 pm. The Southwest employee didn't have any information, but one of the few other passengers (or should I say soon-to-be passengers if we ever got on the flight) willing to speak up and not sit there and act like it wasn't annoying that we were late, actually called Southwest on his cell phone and knew more than the Southwest employee because he told us he was told it was now 1:40 pm. And that was optimistic. One woman had the nerve to say "it's only an hour late" - it was an hour and 45 minutes, and I guess her time isn't important to her. As for me, I'd love to bill Southwest my high end hourly rate each time they keep me waiting. Why do I fly them as the annoying woman who sat next to me asked when I mentioned how annoyed I was that they are ALWAYS late? I ALWAYS check other airlines hoping I'll find one that costs less, and I'd take them in a heartbeat, but unfortunately, Southwest is the cheapest, and so I do it again.

The wedding was nice. Weddings make me cry! They are happy tears, but tears. My niece is very smart. She and the groom wore tennis shoes! The poor bridesmaids suffered in heels, but the bride was comfortable.

Aren't they cute? She looked beautiful and happy and he looked thrilled!

For some reason, we thought our flight home was at 7:20 pm, which meant we were really early. We drove to the beach, but even at 4:00 pm it was so crowded with traffic, we turned around and didn't even get to see the water, even though we were right there. Then we went to the airport and realized our fight was at 6:20 pm so we weren't THAT early. And guess what? We would have been on time, so we know Southwest CAN do it, but some woman went thru security and they didn't make their little notation on her boarding pass so she had to go back and the plane waited for her. I thought that was good, except it took a ridiculous amount of time. How hard is it to get her back to security again. Did they make her wait in line or something? And lining up under the "A", "B" or "C" for Southwest at Orange County Airport (oops, that's JOHN WAYNE Airport) was typical - we couldn't figure out where each line went, and if there's a question, then it isn't working. Once on the plane, the pilot explained how they take off straight up, slow down until they get by the rich houses (he used the term "politicial clout" or something like that) and then go up again. I was scared, but it was fine, and we must have "made up time in the air" because we got in on time! Southwest, you CAN do it! Just not often enough.

We are so glad to be home. Our little birds are growing. We were glad they hadn't left the nest in our absence. Yes, grossly enough, that is bird poop but they haven't left the nest, so what do you expect? It's nature. I see two clearly, but I think there might be three. Today they were making cheeping noises.

Off to go outside and get some house stuff done! Enjoy your Sunday!

It's All About the Birds

We have baby birds! When the momma and poppa bird were away from the nest about a week or so ago, we put a mirror up to the nest and saw four tiny eggs. We didn't see any baby birds for a long time, but we saw momma sitting on the nest and poppa bird coming by often. Today we saw baby birds. It's hard to take pictures because I have to stand on a chair (I'm short, and the nest is high up) and it's right outside our window, and I'm taking it from inside, so there's a glare. The pictures are not great, but you can see momma and two babies below. Awwwwww.
The orange bird below is the poppa. It's blurry but you get the drift. Awwwww. We don't know what kind of birds they are. He is very pretty, and you can see the little mouths looking for food.

We got this cat post at a garage sale several years ago, and none of the cats (Alex, Dave and Cinders at the time) showed any interest. That's why we don't buy cat furniture at the store and pay a lot for it. I don't think they'd be any more interested if it was new and had the new carpet smell, than if it was used and had another cat smell.

I decided that since it wasn't being used as a cat post, the cat post was just the right height to place my laptop when I wanted to put it down back in the days when I had a laptop for use downstairs back in the days when we had a downstairs. Once I did that, the cats decided they were, in fact, interested. Surprise! Cinders likes it best, Alex occasionally goes on it, but hangs off because he's very Maine Coon large, and Mowry has recently decided he is also entitled to sit there. Sometimes Mowry is all curled up and Cinders jumps on the arm of the chair on her way to the post, and she spots Mowry and stops in her tracks, and turns around and leaves. She's such an old bat, that sometimes I'll pick Mowry up and put him on my lap, so Cinders can have her place, but by then she's gone, and he has now become a big grownup cat at 15 months old, and he isn't all that interested in my lap, so he stares longingly at the post until I let him go. He's good natured, so he doesn't claw or bite or fuss (unlike Cinders who claws and bites, or Alex who fusses), but Mowry jumps off my lap the minute I let go, and off he goes back to the post. This is NOT the curled up view.

Saturday

Last night we met friends for dinner at The Essanay Cafe http://www.essanaycafe.com/. We go there for light dinner on Open Mic nights, but we hadn't actually been there for dinner. My dinner was DELICIOUS! I had pork loin, mashed root vegetables, asparagus, and peach salsa with fresh peaches. I don't usually care about the fancy schmancy presentation because it usually makes up for small portions, but this had both presentation and good portions, and it was GREAT!

Today is a company picnic - a client invited me. Some clients are funny, like the one who had a pot luck for the department and told me about the leftovers (I would have gladly brought something), another sent around an email to all on the email list to inform us about their holiday party, but when I asked, was told it's for employees only. This client understands that contractors and employees make up the company and we are invited to everything. Their company parties are great, so we're hoping the picnic will be fun. It will be more kid-oriented, so we may not like it as much, but we'll see.

So, it's hour later and we went to the picnic - the food was pretty good (the usual BBQ - hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, chicken, salad, beans, and the one thing I can't understand at a picnic where food poisoning is always a possibility - potato salad. I NEVER eat P.S. at a picnic. Then they had all kinds of ice cream, but we shared a make your own (OK, design your own, someone else makes it) ice cream sandwich. We had a chocolate chip cookie (my favorite), a peanut butter cookie (Will's favorite) and our choice of French Vanilla, chocolcate mint, milk chocolate or strawberry ice cream. What a treat since I can't eat vanilla and that's the usual standard. We had strawberry and it was divine.

Much of my business is maternity leave coverage because it's a female-dominated business with women in their child-bearing years, but this one is different. An attorney I work for just found out she is pregnant with twins, and her son is almost two. I don't see her often because they have been kind enough to send me home with a laptop and let me work from home (that reminds me, I have some work to do for them before Monday!), I really like her and I barely knew her when she had her first baby so I didn't make a blankie for her, so I decided to make two blankets. I got this yarn at a garage sale for a future baby blanket, so I'll start with that. I decided to crochet this time because you have one live stitch and it's different, but it's hurting my "trigger finger" so I will have to rip it out and start over. Knitting doesn't seem to hurt my finger as much.
What is this, you ask? The plums are still falling from our tree, but not as many - I picked up over 200 at a time in its prime, but now it's fewer than 20. This plum fell off the tree, landed on the cement and sliced itself open. I thought it looked funky - like some sea creature, so I grabbed my camera.