Too cute not to post

The children are asleep. Now the parents get to raid their loot. Shhhhh. Don't tell.

Che sorpresa.

Mr. Stupidhead picked another conservative white guy for the Supreme Court. I'm shocked. Just shocked.

Magknits

October Magknits is up.

Car Trip Art

This evening we were driving home on I-580. The kids were watching a video in the backseat, and I was bored. But aha! I had the camera handy! Here are two of my favorites, taken as we went over the Altamont. The first one reminds me of hearts, and the second of musical notes.

The camera, BTW, is just a Kodak point and shoot digital. I took these shots using the night-time setting, and zoomed in to the camera's max.

Morning Musings

I live in California's Central Valley, where summers are long and hot. But Fall is finally here, with comfortable days and cool, crisp nights. Yesterday we had a few rain showers, and today there's some cloud cover. My students have responded by putting on hats and scarves and parkas and Ugg boots. They look like they're ready for a polar expedition. For goodness sake, the highs are still in the mid-60's! I don't know whether my students are genuinely cold, or if they're just anxious to use their cold-weather gear.


My beloved SUV got crunched this weekend in the grocery store parking lot. An idiot in a pickup backed right into me, even though I was honking like mad. He says he didn't hear me, and he certainly didn't see me. I strongly suspect he was talking on his cell phone, because he managed to have 2 more phone calls in the 5 minutes it took to exchange insurance information. He did $1700 worth of crunching, which my body shop won't get to until the end of November, and which will take them a week to fix. Foruntately, although the kids were in the car with me, nobody was hurt or traumatized. And there is a small silver lining: the fender he squished, which will be replaced, already had 2 largish door dings in it. So at least I'll get rid of them.


I stopped this morning for a venti pumpkin spice Frappuccino because I needed a major caffeine and sugar boost. Right in front of Starbucks, some guy was in the process of being arrested. I have no idea what for; probably nothing important, because there was only one cop car involved. I felt kinda sorry for the guy. What a crappy way to begin your Friday.


Thing One needed to get some cavities filled yesterday. She was an extremely good girl. And for an extra $200 out of her parents' pockets, she got Twinky Star fillings, which are colored and glittery. She even got to choose her colors (pink and blue). The dental tech warned us against orange--he said it just looks like the kid's been eating Cheetos. While I certainly appreciate anything that will help a 6-year-old tolerate dental work, I wonder if it's really such a great idea to make cavities FUN!?!


Elizabeth Hickok has sculpted San Francisco in Jello. Knatolee, does this inspire you?

Clapotis est fini

Allison is modeling my clapotis, fini. I'm very pleased with the scarf, which ended up using about 3 1/3 skeins of yarn. Allison looks a little strange in this pic because (1) she just returned from the dentist, and her mouth is numb, (2) she's about to leave for gymnastics, hence the leotard, and (3) they're having a Halloween party at gymnastics today, hence the hot pink hair.

I should mention that Angelika's got my extra yarn to me within 3 days, and the dye lots seem to be a good match.

I am looking forward to taking my clapotis to Europe with me.

Ooh la la?

I have been slooooowly making progress on my current project, a clapotis. I'm using Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb in the Jeans colorway. This yarn is equally scrumptious to look at and to touch. I bought it a bunch of months ago at Stash in Berkeley. Now, I normally buy an extra ball of yarn or so, just in case. But this stuff is really spendy--as in $30 or so a pop. So I just bought the 3 that the pattern calls for. Well, Saturday night I hit the halfway point on my clapotis and realized that 3 wasn't gonna make it. I searched online and found Angelika's Yarn Store, which had the right color in stock. I ordered one more ball, and it looks like it was shipped today. I just hope the dye lot is a good match. I'm wondering, too, why I'm running short, because I tend to knit tightly, and because I didn't care about gauge in the project, I should have had enough yarn.

Clapotis was inspired by Parisian women, and it looks like I'll actually get to wear mine in Paris. This winter, the plan is for the grandparents to come stay with the kids, so hubby and I get a grownup vacation in London and Paris. First time the two of us will have the time and the money to go to Europe together. Hooray!

As If My Knitting Backlog Wasn't Big Enough Already

The Fall Knitty and September Magknits are up.