Newsflash....

(this is where you imagine the sound of a teletype machine spitting out a breaking story)

I am a boob.

I can be fun at parties, can dance in time to music, tell some jokes, appreciate others; you know, not bad company.

But I am a boob.

I frogged my Jaywalker socks, as per my last post, because the colours in the Perfect Day yarns, which I LOVE, were not striping as I envisioned.

So I frogged them, and started Knitspot's Shifty sock pattern, thinking it had been the number of stitches that interfered with the striping sequence. Well, I don't like this pattern either.


I actually preferred the Jaywalkers.

So in my quest to perfect the striping - pink, turquoise, brown, cream - one of my favourite combinations, in fact - I started to poke around Ravelry to see what other people are making with this yarn.

Guess what?

It's not supposed to stripe the way I pictured it in my twisted little mind. I actually had it right the first time. There are two bands of two colours each - pink/turquoise, brown/cream. It seems that the four colours stripe together in the toe.

Only in the toe.

So I am going to frog one more time, and then... well, I'm not sure. I know this has everything to do with a current lack of focus which seems to be pervading all aspects of my world right now. I'd like to blame it on summer vacation brain. Or hormones - hormones are the perfect scapegoat for so many things. But we all know what the real problem is.

I am a boob.

I'm so glad to be home...

Not! (Thank you, Wayne's World, which we have been watching much so far this summer)

I don't get to smell pine trees, or wake up to this, or watch a black bear cub ambling across my front porch while sitting inside having a coffee (I actually thought it was Charlie at first, and by the time my poor brain registered that Charlie wasn't with us, it had gone off in search of dirtier barbecues)...

I can't drive down the road for 10 minutes and see this


We can't pop into a canoe and find a view like this (these pics were taken by Tanner - he has quite an eye, it seems!)

There aren't a lot of these or these - at least, they're not as friendly around here...

There has been some of this since we got home, but the setting changes everything...

there was much playing of Monopoly - we actually had a week long game that ended with the 'Death Match on the final Saturday night - I lost quickly, and Ben was declared the winner with $180million, while Tanner was runner up with $43 million... not too shabby

somw swimming although it wasn't as hot and humid as I'd hoped - still, nothing beats swimming in a lake to me, absolutely nothing...

there was even some knitting, although for some reason I had a VERY hard time focusing... I started some Jaywalker socks with a skein of Perfect Day Yarns as my easy project. While I loved the start of them , I soon found that because of the number of stitches, the three colours did not stripe together and I was ending up with this , which just isn't the look I'm going for. I also started a pair of Marina Piccola socks using merino/sea cell yarn from Unwind - took me three times to finally get the pattern and sizing set, and I quite like them ... the yarn makes for fairly weighty socks, which surprises me, actually...

I also got started on a KAL with the Loopy Ewe using Dream in Color Baby - I am making the Lace Ribbon Scarf from the Spring '08 Knitty, and after 5, count 'em, 5 attempts, FINALLY got the damn thing to look like it's supposed to...


So we packed quite a bit into our week away, and still managed to relax and actually enjoy each other's company... hopefully that carries on through the remainer of our vacation, during what looks to be (of course, now that we're not on a lake anymore) a hot, hazy and humid spell...

So... am I glad to be home? Why don't you be the judge of that??

Oooohhhh, An Adventure

Well, if the dogs are at the kennel (they are), my mom has been enlisted to check in on our intentional rodent population (she has), and the van is being packed up puzzle-style (it will be), then we must be heading out on a trip...

and we are..

we are going up to "our" cottage at the Blue Spruce Resort on Oxtongue Lake, just outside of Algonquin Park for the next week... when we went last year, it rained every single frigging day and was COLD

the weather forecast for this week looks hot and humid, which, when you are lucky enough to have a clean sparkling lake in front of you, is what you want... not that I actually trust weathermen or anything, but when it suits my purposes, I believe them...

I believe that makes me a fair-weather friend???

Happy summer, see y'all in a week...

Isn't the living supposed to be easy?

You know, summertime and all that???

We have been bus-s-s-s-y since the beginning of last week, so let's do the time warp again (with thanks to the Rocky Horror Picture Show) so I can show you.....

last Tuesday (not July 1, the one before), both of my sons graduated from their respective grades, Ben in the morning from Grade 6, for which I found myself coordinating their afternoon luncheon (note to self: must work on my 'just say NO' skills this summer).

Oh, and the stars behind Ben and his teacher? Yet another instance of my spinelessness... I started with these , which were generously cut and donated by the father of a friend of mine - just scrap pressed board, nothing fancy

UNTIL some poor schmuck spends the better part of a weekend spray-painting them gold
,
tying ribbons into the pre-cut holes and then writing on the names of all the recipients (there were 44 in total)

and THEN, because, again, the 'n' word is not something that works unless dealing with the offspring in question (NO, I will not pay $75 for a t-shirt; NO, I will not buy you a Gibson Les Paul), same schmuck spends an hour pinning the stars to the backdrop curtain, then unpinning after the ceremony so the kids could get each other to sign the back and then keep them...

my spray-paint laden lungs and pin-scarred fingertips may never be the same... but I digress...

that evening (last Tuesday, not the 1st - still with me?), Tanner celebrated his graduation from Grade 8...

Tanner was surprised to learn that I fully supported his choice of attire (an Aerosmith shirt with a suit? TOTALLY), and I was reminded yet again that dark bras are better under dark t-shirts...

We shared the traditional first dance, which interestingly was held in the cafeteria, and frankly, you can't beat food service counters for ambience, during which I kept apologizing to the poor boy who was SO uncomfortable, and then he and his friends opted out of the remainder of the dance and came with me to Dairy Queen instead...

nothing says Happy Graduation like an Oreo Blizzard...

I spent the day on the verge of tears, but held it together pretty well, only tearing up here and there and never outright blubbering, for which we were all grateful...

oh, and that same day, the school held its final assembly, during which I was presented with a lovely, thoughtful gift as a thank you for running a weekly lunch program for the past 5 years, and earning over $20,000 in total for the school coffers...

really, all I needed was Old Yeller dying in front of me to make the emotional rollercoaster complete...

since then there have been pool parties, bike rides, the latest installment of Woolgirl's sock club

I know I've said this before, but Jen puts together the most FABULOUS packages - look at the perfect, tiny froggie stitch marker in the middle of all that


There has been attempted (and aborted) warping

Maggie didn't know what the hell I was doing, but stayed right there watching me

and then yesterday, my young men were off on their first official summer expedition - three days of 5 males in this


I have never seen one so big up close before - 31 feet long, at least 2 1/2 feet taller than a city bus, 2 TV's and a FULL BATHROOM - their father is of the opinion that bigger is always better... at least, until he has to drive it down a tree-laden street, leaving the carnage of torn branches and shredded leaves in his wake...

I was invited to visit for a day, but I have no interest in seeing my boys playing Lord of the Flies

So, upon re-reading this, I think yet another lesson for me is to post when I think of it, and not wallop y'all with these occasional sagas... and maybe to enjoy a little quiet time while I can...

the living is easy... right???