Friday Colors in Nature

It's February 29th - a leap year! We're having nice weather, although it was very overcast this morning and only in the mid afternoon did the sun show up. There are so many beautiful colors in nature. It's almost spring.

In our yard - which is your favorite?

Purple/blue hyacinth and white alyssum (with green leaves):

Yellow Lemon Tree (with green leaves): Orange Orchids (with green leaves):
Yellow Freesias (with green leaves):
White blossoms on the plum tree:
White camelias (with green leaves):

Pink Camelias (with green leaves):
White daisies with yellow centers (and green leaves):Pink variegated geraniums (with green leaves):
I never remember the names of these, but they come in many colors:

Purple lavender (and not part of nature, but a pink flamingo!):I also don't know the name of this plant, but I love this picture with the pink flowers in the foreground, and the green hills with the Niles sign in the background.Not in our yard, but pink blossoms, green hills, and green trees.

And of course, more orange:

Thursday but it feels like Wednesday

I'm not sure why, but it feels like Wednesday. It's Thursday, and our trash is out for Thursday pickup, so that's good. I should go do some gardening to fill up our green bin, but I was doing some work that I actually get paid for! Clients are flakey this month. I sent a message to confirm a Monday - Tuesday contract, and they don't need me. It was tentative, but still. I've not seen this much juggling and changing in a long time.

I was going thru old photos and found these:

Mowry when we got him in August 2006:

And Mowry now. Looking grouchy or something, but he's really not a grouch.

Grouchy would be Cinders, but lately her favorite spot is on the cat bed on our bed. Poor old Cinders - she's all matted, and we should probably have her shaved, but she'd have to be put out and she'd hate it and who knows if she would make it. we're trying to decide now what's best. She is the one who plays the most at play time. Mowry and Alex mostly watch. Alex is sitting with his paws pressing on the DVD player. Better than when he puts his head on it. He doesn't photograph well in this light, but he's a beauty, even with his undercoat getting a little gray.

Is this gorgeous? Does it look like a picture and not real? It's Jackson Hole, WY and the arch is made of elk antlers that light up at night.It looks cold. Today it is 28 degrees here. It's 63 right now in Fremont at 11:30 am, to give you the contrast!

Tuesday, February 26th

It was a beautiful day today. It got as high as 67 degrees. That is special in Northern California in February. My lavender bush is happy. I tried to trim some lavender flowers, but the bees think this is their plant, so I have to wait until the sun is down and the bees are gone.These are freesias. They will bloom and be beautiful when they are ready. Now they just look like trampled leaves. Behind is mostly geranium - I never liked the scent of them, but they bloom and are easy to grow, and were here before me, so there you have it. The Christmas Cactus is blooming now even though it's February.

I got a thank you gift certificate to Yarn Market (http://www.yarnmarket.com/) and now I can't decide what I want. I look at it daily, and it will probably be a few months before I make any decisions. Thank you, Ann.

Kandyman came by to visit. He sure scratches a lot, even for a cat. He is adorable and friendly and greets us when he is in our backyard or hanging out on our driveway. The other day he was locked in our garage. It is a good thing Will went into the garage because there is no food, box or water in there. He sneaks in and we forget to check to be sure he isn't there.

Speaking of cats, our friends had to put down their cat today. This is the second time for them in a just a few months. They went from three cats to one, and it was very sad both times. Their remaining cat could be Alex's twin. If they were not a year or two apart, we'd think they were separated at birth. We know how hard it is to lose a cat, and our hearts go out to them.

We're getting closer to the debut for Will's new band formed last August. It's March 12th at a local coffee brewing place. I hope they have a great time!

My Dad is still having trouble getting online. I wonder if it's the Fry's dial up service or something he is doing. I hope someone near him can help him since I'm a plane ride away. Erin has been helping when she's there, but the problem is when she leaves and he's by himself with his laptop!

Stitches West and Things

Look, I do use this scratching post that you got at a garage sale SEVERAL months ago. I tried to hold out, but it's kind of cool.

Diann and I met at Stitches West on Friday morning. I took the train down and the first shuttle stop was the convention center. It was larger than the two years before I had attended, and I thought it was more crowded, though others didn't agree. Apparently we managed the crowds better last time by having lunch early just as classes got out (and crowded the booths) and then we went back to booths when others were eating lunch. This time we seemed to hit more crowds, not my favorite part. My friend, Gale, was there, but I never did see her.

There was so much yarn! I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I bought one kind of yarn each of the past two years I've attended, and I wasn't thrilled with either one, so I was trying to be very careful this time.

After swearing off any more socks (at least for awhile), I found this:

8 skeins of sock yarn at the 75% off bin - 4 of one kind, and 2 each of two others, so 4 pairs of socks. Diann offered to share, so for $18 I got a deal.

Then I wanted to make asweater like the green sweater I just finished (and didn't get to wear to Stitches because I washed it too late and it was still wet, but it's kind of springy for this dreary rainy weater) in a larger yarn. I don't want to be changing my pattern to match my gauge, so I wanted to buy yarn that would give me the right gauge so all I have to do is follow the pattern. I had to call Will at home to find the pattern that I know I had printed out to bring with me. Luckily it's a pattern I found on the internet, so I had saved it and all he had to do was go to "my favorites" and find it and browse it to find the needle size, gauge and amount of yarn. I could just predict he'd groan and not want to do it, but he was cool and helpful and I even had to call him twice because I forgot to ask something. Diann helped me estimate how much yarn because I didn't ask him that. I think I may have overbought, but I have an idea for the remaining yarn. I may have new blog readers soon, so I don't want to say what my idea is.

It's a rich brown/gray color to which this photo doesn't do a lot of justice.

I made this scraf one day - it's very short scarf and I attached a pin to hold it together. I used yarn that the woman who posted for her needles and leftover yarn a month or so ago gave me. I used it all, and it came out nice. I really like the yarn. I used a brooch, but I saw someone at Stitches using funky buttons to hold together a scarf. Interested idea.

The weather report is for a huge storm. The light on the hills before the storm is beautiful! We are expecting lots of rain, and there is actually a wind alert starting at noon today. It's 12:30 pm and only drizzles and no rain yet.

The orchids are beautiful. I hope the rain doesn't destroy them. So far it seems they like the rain. They are in full bloom here.

Durango had some excitement yesterday. I check the webcam daily, and I got my friend, Holly, to look at it. It's a fun diversion from the workday looking at my computer all day. She was looking at it around 1:00 pm when she noticed smoke and fire engines. The fire burned three businesses, two of them restaurants. There ended up being an explosion, and seven firefighters were injured. Holly was frantic - she emailed me several times with updates saying "you picked a bad day to be gone". It was quite a coincidence that the fire occurred right on the stretch that the web cam views. This is today with the road closed and people milling about checking out the scene. The fire was to the left, just behind the banner.

It's not one of those webcams that has history you can view, like our train station has, so I can't go back and see the webcam view with the fire engines. I saw it when I got home yesterday, but didn't save it. I got an email from a train buddy who is in Shanghai on business but was looking at the train station webcam - he told me he saw me on my morning commute!

Green Sweater and Things

I finished my green sweater. I need to wash and block it. I'm happy with it, but I'm still struggling with this gauge and measuring stuff. I do not like math. I hate math. I don't want to measure and count. It's almost small on me, and that doesn't make me happy. This is the sweater I was trying to make. It looks like it would easily fit over a blouse.

This is the sweater I ended up with:

The neck is much tighter and it wouldn't fit over a blouse. Maybe a camisole, but that's it. I'm happy with it, but I wish I would have known that I would have been happier had I made it a little bigger. I probably had enough yarn to make it slightly wider. Well live and learn. I guess I will use the EXACT yarn called for in the pattern next time, and hopefully I won't have to worry about it. Did I mention that I DID measure? See how I'm not good at measuring and math and all that stuff?

It's almost 9 am and I am trying to figure out where I'm going today, if anywhere. The client scheduled for today sent me an email (after leaving a voicemail, even though I request email since I check that far more often than voicemail) after 6:00 pm last night asking if I could change to Weds or Thurs, so now I'm waiting to find out if the client scheduled for a few hours on Thurs can switch to today. I'm glad this doesn't happen too often. This has been a strange month - not too much work, lots of switching around, clients not ready for me when I get there.

I may end up home today, but that would be okay since I have lots of things to do. Then I will have to double up tomorrow - not my favorite thing, but what can I do?

The Clampetts Strike Again Feb 16, 2008

It's Saturday and the weather was nicer than it has been in past weekends, so that means garage sales! We went to a few, and then we stopped at an estate sale. They can be run by relatives, or professionals. Both can be good, and interesting. Today's sale was run by women who were relatives, and they just wanted to get rid of the stuff left behind by one's father-in-law.

We found this loveseat that is two recliners. It's probably "like leather" but it's quite nice. We decided it might take up less room than our two separate recliners. So we bought it for $40! They actually separate into two, but that defeats the purpose.

The space is not that small - I think we may have had our other recliners farther away from the wall.

They also had nice clothes. The shirts are all new with tags. The burgundy, beige and blue are a a nice microsuede that can be washed. The tags say $42, but they charged us $3 each. The socks, also new, were $1.

I found a shirt that wasn't new, so it was $1, but it looks like it was barely worn. It's in the wash now.We moved the two recliners in the living room while we made space for the loveseat.

Now have too many chairs. Did I really say that? So I put a post on two local email groups, and had more responses than I expected. It turns out that our friend Diann wanted the green chair.

And the burgundy recliner went to a woman with two sons who will surely all be fighting over it.

I'm always glad to recycle. We had gotten both chairs free from similar posts within the past 8 months, and we enjoyed them both. Now we are able to give them to others who will enjoy them. I'm really glad Diann is taking the green chair.

Speaking of green, my green sweater is coming along, although I admit I ripped out the second sleeve after this picture was taken because I didn't count how many stitches I picked up to make the first sleeve, and the second sleeve seemed slightly larger, so I'm redoing it. I'm really happy with this, and I may look for appropriate yarn at Stitches on Friday to make another.

UPDATE: I'm bidding on this same yarn on Ebay (5 skeins of the green, 2 skeins of yellow, 2 skeins of pink, and 8 skeins of turquoise). Maybe I should put in a higher bid. This yarn is no longer made, though I'm not sure why because it's nice to knit with and the result is great. If I get this, I won't need to buy yarn at Stitches!The sweater that I am working on is in the same yarn as the green you see in this photo. It's a beautiful color, and my photo does not do the color justice.

I went on Thursday to hear Will's new band and take pictures with my digital camera. Ken and Diann also went and Ken took pictures with his film camera. Out of the many pictures I took, two were pretty good. Ken's may even be better!

Pictures from a Beautiful Weekend (66 degrees)

It's lunch time at Matlack Cafe. I am having a peanut butter sandwich with fresh delicious grapes from Raley's, and Will is having cottage cheese with peaches and the same grapes, although the picture isn't good. (It wasn't worth re-taking). I told him his looked like the diet plate at Denny's.

Update on Dad online: I spoke too soon. The email I received was actually sent by my Niece from my Dad's email. She was able to get him online, but somehow he can't do it. She did it and showed him, but maybe when she returns, she can have him do it. Doing it, rather than watching someone else doing it, is the only way to learn. His upstairs neighbor teachers computer classes, but she doesn't know much about laptops or PCs, so she couldn't help him, even though she offered. My Sister works in technical support, but he can't be online and on the phone with dial-up. Maybe this weekend he can call her on his cell phone and be online, and she can walk him thru a few quick things.

It's hard to believe there is snow on the ground in some parts of the country, because we had unusual weather in the 60s with no rain, although it was damp and chilly at night, so the ground is still wet in places.

We went to the flea market, and even a few garage sales! I believe this is the site where our crack city is looking for vendors to develop the land into shopping. It's money for Ohlone College, but it's also taking away beauty. I've posted pictures before from the other direction.I have been wanting to take pictures of the various Niles signs around town, and was able to do so on Saturday. Not bad from the car window! No cars in the way.

Check out Santa at the doorway to this old train car.

We were able to use the sunroom, and Mowry was quite happy about that.

The camelias are in bloom. This is our neighbor's HUGE magnolia tree (note how tall it is next to our fence) and pink blooming camelias.

We've got camelias and lemons and orchids all left by the previous owner. Thank you, Elsie. I don't think we had many bloom last year.

I don't care for orchids - I mean that - I do nothing. And I don't care for them as in "I don't like them" because the ones I am familiar with need care. I do nothing to them and they thrive. My friend, Diann, tells me these don't need much care.

I finished sock pair #4 and I'm wearing them!

One is slightly larger than the other but it's so minimal it is okay. HOW does that happen? Can you guess which one? Or is it my foot that is different? Ha! It's not in the look, but the feel!I'm trying to finish my cotton sweater so I can wear it to Stitches West a week from Friday. I realized I didn't have short enough size 7 circulars, or enough size 7 DPNs (double pointed needles - yes, Will reads this blog). Why I'd have only 3 size 7 DPNs is beyond me, but I guess I got it at an estate sale, and one of the size 8 DPNs look so close to the size 7...but I digress. Diann saved me by letting me borrow her size 7 DPNs. Thank you, Diann. And this was the view as the sun started to set as I was leaving her house. Did everyone notice the sun is setting later? That is especially nice on these warmer days. I know it will be cold again - it snowed on the hilltops above us in March a few years ago - but until then, enjoy!