In which God works in mysterious ways

Before leaving the house this morning to take Neatnik to today's fifth and final day of Discovery Canyon Vacation Bible School, I checked the weather forecast. Late yesterday, I had noticed that the meteorologists were shouldn't wonder if we weren't steering into a nasty piece of weather and I wanted to keep my eye on things.


It's a Mom thing.

I learned that those who study and record data on high and low pressure systems, hot and cold air masses, and the fluctuations of the Fahrenheits were predicting quantities of precipitation which might make the construction of a three hundred cubit ocean-going craft a phenomenally good idea. They were even suggesting that along with all of that falling water we might have ringside seats to a sizzling hot light show.

Given such a precipitation prognosis, I decided that I would take advantage of the time that Neatnik was otherwise engaged and take a good long hike around the fitness trail at one of the local parks. This park has a well-shaded, packed dirt path which is one mile in length. Did I mention that this park is just over a quarter of a mile from the church where Neatnik was doing VBS?

Perfect.

No raindrops fell from the heavens while I was walking though the clouds were fairly well preoccupied with playing tag with the sun. It was a very hazy, hot, and humid sort of morning. The kind of weather which causes one to be absolutely dripping in perspiration prior to completing the first mile. Nine miles later, I was one tired trek.

I debated with myself whether or not Neatnik and I should try to go to the pool this afternoon. Finally, near three o'clock, I decided to throw caution to the winds and just do it. We changed into our suits, packed some fruit and water, and went to the pool. About half a dozen of Neatnik's classmates' moms also decided to play a little weather-roulette so we had plenty of people with whom to talk and to play. While chatting with a couple of other moms, I noticed a woman I had known for many years at our previous parish. This was the first day this summer that I had seen her at the pool, so I excused myself and wandered over to say hello.

We caught up on the kids and school and then the old parish. After a bit, we got to talking about VBS and how much our kids like it. What followed can only be categorized as "God works in mysterious ways".

This woman volunteers with VBS at another local parish. They are doing Crocodile Dock - next week. Did anyone notice how this is a fourth different VBS theme, one which Neatnik has not yet done? Or that they are still going to sign up new children Monday morning? Or that my old friend offered to pick up and drop off the Neatnik every day? Or that we almost didn't go to the pool today because of the impending thunderstorms?

Oh, yeah, mysterious ways!

Night sky

Thanks for all of the nice comments from yesterday's post!

Sorry about the brevity of today's post. I'm pretty much exhausted and looking for my pillow. Part of the exhaustion stems from running some errands this morning and then taking Neatnik to the pool for the afternoon. Right after dinner, though I would have loved to curl up and go to sleep, we had to drive over to the church for the Vacation Bible School concert.

The kids sang us the songs they learned this week. Overall, it was cute. We will not speak of the harmony on the last number.

Instead, let's admire a pair of socks in their embryonic phase.

Madagascar Socks - Night Sky Edition

Usually, the "edition" of my Madagascar Socks is the name of the yarn's colorway but not in this case. The yarn is by Cherry Tree Hill and they called it "Martha's Vineyard" but it reminds me of the night sky, right after the sun has set.

Since the night sky is what I can see outside my windows, I am going to end here and seek my sheets.

Sleep well, blog peeps.

Buff

When you least expect them, cool compliments come.

After my now-usual fruit and oatmeal bread breakfast and bringing Neatnik to Vacation Bible School, I needed to run some errands. We are hosting a playdate at our house this afternoon, so I wanted to pick up some supplies at the craft store. I parked in their lot, stashed the stuff I bought in the minivan, and then traipsed over to the library with my returns in tow. While I was checking out my books, the circulation desk clerk commented on my recent weight loss. She said I was looking very fit and all buff.

Buff! I've never been described as buff in my entire life.

What a great day this is! I don't even care much that we are hosting a playdate simply to distract me from the return of the grout guy to fix the mistake he made with the floor tiles at the beginning of July or that it is hot, humid, and likely to rain this afternoon or that I decided to undo four rounds of single crochet on the top of the Interminable Pink Panda String Bag or that I am unlikely to score any sock knitting time this afternoon.

I'm buff!

SABTC: Update #3

Here I am at the start of a very busy week. Let's kick it off with a Monday Morning Bullet Post.

• Neatnik's third Vacation Bible School session of the summer started this morning. We had a near miss on a meltdown when she realized she wasn't assigned to the same second grade classroom as her friends from school. Fortunately, the lady who runs the show is kind and compassionate. Neatnik was quickly reassigned and the crisis was averted.



• I was thinking about maybe duplicate stitching a faux seam across the top of yesterday's socks. I was thinking navy blue would be a good contrast.



• For the Second Annual Box Topapalooza, we now have 79 Box Tops in our kitchen collecting box. Yes, we added just two more this week as well. With me eating fresh fruit and oatmeal bread for breakfasts and Neatnik requesting oatmeal and the occasional waff-ooz!, we are eating a lot less cold cereal at chez trek these days.



• I really, really need to mail Chris her prize from the quarters in the tea tin contest. I haven't forgotten you, Chris, but I did forget how infrequently I have time to visit the post office in the summer and how easily chocolate melts in the heat. I can rethink the chocolate accompanying the sock bag or I can wait until the weather cools to mail it. It isn't like you won't have other prize packages waiting in your mailbox, now is it? ;o)



• Speaking of summer heat, we had crazy amounts of thunder and lightning both early yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon and on into the evening. All of that electrical activity has done nothing to decrease the humidity and the grass pollen counts are predicted to be pretty high today as well.



• I'd better carry my inhaler.



• I am reconsidering how to fashion the handles for the Interminable Pink Panda String Bag. The ones I have hooked in past have a slight ruffliness about the handle edges that I'd prefer not to have. Part of the planning process includes figuring out how strong the stress points will be on the finished bag. More on this later.



• I have to cast on a pair of socks. Today. The only knitting on needles at this moment is the Cable and Rib Cardigan (Ravelry link) and it isn't good for social knitting and tonight is knit night.



• As long as Number Guy gets home from work early enough, that is.



• Neatnik and I are now tied at 92 new titles each for the calendar year 2009. She is viewing this as a contest and has expressed renewed vigor to finish the books she has started.



• We are nearly out of fruits and vegetables. It is astounding how much produce one family of three can consume in any given week. Oh, well, at least it is healthy - even if it means that I have to visit the store every couple of days. Totally worth it.

And now I must end this post here, since I *do* have to "visit with the vegetables" and it is much quicker to do that run solo whilst Neatnik is at VBS. Who knows? Maybe I can also score a walk before pick up time.

In which trek is inspired

I was so inspired by a certain Sheepie that I determined that I would step up to the plate today. Look at what we have here!

SJ Crew Socks - Raspberry Edition

Yep, an honest to goodness finished project.

Upsizing Specs
Cast on count: 72 sts
Leg length: 64 rounds
Heel flap: 36 rows
Gusset pick up count: 20 sts each side
Foot length: 48 rounds, plus one round even
Toe decreases: from 72 sts down to 28

Of dreams and breakfasts

Moderator: "Our subject this evening is an internationally famous knit blogger. trek, please tell us about your dream."

trek: "I suppose that the tenor for today was set by the bad dream I had early this morning. I'd awoken around six or so, but I rolled over to try to catch a few more Zs. This was a mistake.

"Immediately, I found myself in a very strange dream. It was one of those being chased sequences only this one was more esoteric than most. I was trying to avoid Lord Voldemort in a large auditorium setting except that this particular auditorium rather resembled a Wal-Mart and although Voldemort retained his snake-like visage, he was a motivational speaker on a stage. Instead of Death Eater minions in masks and cloaks, my dream Voldemort had stylishly dressed administrative assistants who kept herding us back each every time we tried to escape, even following us into the bathrooms. Honestly, I found these administrative assistants far more scary and intimidating than Lucius Malfoy or even Bellatrix Lestrange."

Moderator: "We shall now hear from several well-known dream interpreters, Israelites Joseph ben Jacob and Daniel the Exile, Greek diviner Artemidorus Ephesius, Hogwarts divination professor Sybil Trelawney, and local psychologist, Dr Cassandra Sykes."

# # #

Yes, that's the way my day started. The weirdness continued at breakfast. For many years, the only cereal I would eat was Corn Chex. I ate a bowl for breakfast daily and they had the added bonus of having them . Following the return of the cholesterol numbers, I have been having oatmeal bread and fruit for breakfast. This morning, I thought that I would enjoy a bowl of Corn Chex instead.

Would you believe that I ate the whole bowl and then sat staring into the depths of the bowl thinking, "I like the oatmeal bread and fruit breakfast better."

It's true.

I found myself feeling like when you were a little kid and your parents tried to get you to eat something "because it was good for you". You were convinced that you weren't going to like it as much as the stuff that wasn't as good for you. You were convinced that the only reason your parents were insisting that you try it was because they were engaged in a secret plot to poison you. Then, lo and behold, there was that one time when the stuff they wanted you to eat actually tasted better than the stuff you wanted. Your parents were right but no way did you want to admit it to them.

That's how I felt about the fruit and oatmeal bread breakfasts this morning.

PS - I made a fresh loaf of bread today.

Run away!

There's a young skunk in our yard right now. It is the same critter which sprayed Black Dog earlier in the week.

See you tomorrow: we are currently in hiding.

Rain, rain, go away

The weather is lousy for the second day running. Pouring rain most of the day and in the mid-60°s (F). No sun, no pool. Seems like a good excuse for some Thursday Evening Bullet Posting.

• I just got back from taking Neatnik to Vacation Bible School. She's been doing VBS with this same church for quite a while now. Yesterday, Number Guy's pipe band was playing out at the county fair. And it was bracelet night. And they were having fireworks.



• You see where this is going, don't you?



• Neatnik missed one day of VBS and today when I brought her into the church one of the adult volunteers said how much they missed my child last night and wondered how many years they have been lucky enough to have her there.



• It's been five years, in case you were wondering.



• The nice lady said how articulate our Neatnik is.



• Why, yes, we are very proud of her.



• After such a long night and having a tail-dragging morning, Neatnik was in dire need of a nap this afternoon. She slept for an hour and a half.



• I did laundry.



• I think that I got shortchanged.



• Oh, well, the laundry needed to be done and better to do it on a rainy afternoon than to put it off until tomorrow, which is supposed to be a nicer day.



• It is still raining.



• I'm reading volume three of the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. This one's called Grip of the Shadow Plague. I'm enjoying it.



• Note to self: Send library a request form for volume four, Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary.



• I worked on the Interminable Pink Panda String Bag while taking a walk this morning. I think, what with all of the frogging, this was the fifth time I hooked round fifteen.



• I walked inside the local mall.



• Round fifteen is correct now.



• As are rounds sixteen and seventeen.



• No, I haven't knit yet today.



• Did I mention that it is raining?



• I need to make a batch of oatmeal bread tonight. That or decide that I want to have Corn Chex for breakfast for a change.



• I used to eat Corn Chex for breakfast every morning.



• That was before the cholesterol numbers came back from the lab and the doctor decided that I should learn to like oatmeal.



• Not that Corn Chex are unhealthy, mind you. They just aren't as heavy on the soluble fiber as the oats are.

There you have it, Jeudi avec Balles. Hope your Thursday has been drier than mine. If it hasn't, tell Noah to swing by chez trek: we are a party of three and we come with our own livestock.

In which trek reports on progress

There was a little bit of rumbling in the comments about the recent lack of knitting progress photography. Apparently my attempts to divert the blogosphere from this deficiency were unsuccessful, but, really, how can anyone expect to see updated knitting pictures when there has been very little knitting in the first place?

Let's take this weekend as an example. Saturday morning, I took a a nice long walk but it was too warm and sticky to knit so I simply listened to some tunes. Just after I came home, Bobblehead came to play with Neatnik. Play dates with the cousin can be a very good thing. The girls happily entertained themselves while I baked bread and made them lunch and then we spent time outside with the sidewalk chalk and bubbles. Later, we made a run to the store to pick up a few items, dropped off the Bobblehead, and made our way to a friend's house where I helped make a celebratory dinner.

There really wasn't any time to squeeze in knitting.

Sunday morning was taken up with going to church and another warm, sticky walk. Sunday afternoon, we took Neatnik to see a local production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. By the time we returned home, everyone was hungry so I prepped a quick dinner and then we took Neatnik to the pool for some Daddy and daughter water antics.

Again, not a day really suited to knitting, though I did manage a wee little bit of hooking on the Interminable Pink Panda String Bag.

By this time I'm sure everyone is thinking that surely Monday would be a day to score some knitting time. Um, no. Neatnik's school cooperated with the Six Flags franchise in their Six Hours/Six Flags reading program back in the winter. The upshot is that the kids each read for at least six hours during the promotion and earned free tickets. We carpooled because parking is outrageously priced and I volunteered to drive. I remembered from last year's trip that bringing the knitting doesn't mean that knitting will happen so I left it at home this year. Good thing, too: I lost a pair of cheap sunglasses on a ride - wouldn't have wanted to lose a knitting project. After I dropped off the other family, I shot home to get Neatnik a change of clothes and then it was off to Vacation Bible School. We made it just on time. I returned home and Number Guy and I walked to the library to drop off the stuff that was due and to pick up some travel guides.

Again, can we really see any time for knitting here?

When we awoke yesterday morning, the skies were not just grey, they were leaking. A lot. Yes, a rainy day! Perfect for staying at home to knit. Not. There were books at the college waiting for my pick up and review. There was a Lite-Brite awaiting pick up from a fellow Freecycler's porch. There were vegetables waiting for purchase at the warehouse club store. And the minivan was starving for a fuel infusion. Wrap multi-hour sessions of hotel shopping around those mid-day activities and you pretty much have my day in a nutshell. Except for the mad dash to get Neatnik to her swim lesson after Number Guy got home with the corollary scampering to VBS immediately after the child was changed into dry clothes.

Can we see any knitting opportunities here?

Well, no, not really, but I did shoehorn in a couple of dozen rounds during the swim class and VBS so this morning I decided, despite the ongoing drizzle and grey skies, to take a picture of the SIPs.

Progress!

Foot knitting goes pretty quickly. Could there be a finished pair on the horizon?

Or perhaps at the end of the tunnel?

SABTC: Update #2

I have a need for organization and continuity in my life. This is why, when I was getting ready to post today, I checked back to last week's Box Topapalooza update: today's post title had to be the same as last week's post title, except for the numbering. You may recall that I did the same thing last summer during the inaugural Box Topapalooza contest.

I pulled up my July archive and scanned the list and I saw that my first update for the Second Annual Box Topapalooza was only four posts ago. Four. That's not a lot of blog posting, now, is it?

Sure, there was the visit to the gardens and the public service announcement and who can forget the snorts and giggles on my inability to count to two?

It isn't that we haven't been busy, but how many blog posts can I write centering around "This morning, we did a bunch of School at Home and then we spent a bunch of time at the pool today, where Neatnik jumped off the diving board for most of the afternoon with her friends, whilst the other moms and I chatted nearby"?

I promise that I will try to do better this week. I'm pretty sure that I can. A couple of the other moms and I are taking the kids to a major amusement park today, tomorrow Neatnik starts a round of swim lessons, and Wednesday evening Number Guy's bagpipe band is playing at the county fair. Laid over those activities will be an evening Vacation Bible School at a friend's church. Neatnik has been doing VBS with this congregation since she was a wee little child and she loves it. This year, their theme is Camp Edge. Three different weeks of VBS at three different churches covering three different themes - good stuff.

Oh, wait, you came here to check on the Box Top count update, didn't you? Chez trek has 77 Box Tops in the little box in the kitchen. We added only two to our total this week, but I also bought a multi-pack of tissues which brought eight more Box Tops into the house, thought they have not yet been divested from their boxes. How many Box Tops are lurking about your place?

PS - Neatnik's school also collects Campbell's Labels for Education. If you buy products with these labels, you can clip them and send them to me and include them in your Box Tops count. Unfortunately for the school, we don't use a single product with these labels.

Batteries

My "gym" is a free one - no down payments, no monthly fees - and it is open 24/7, including each and every holiday. Of course, the lighting and temperature are set by the management and I get no input on the environmental settings whatsoever.

Yeah, I like to do my walking outside. This morning, I took a pretty long one, just me and my mp3 player. While I was walking, I noticed that someone had tossed a AA battery by the side of the road. I really hate litter and stuff like batteries which have specific disposal requirements really irk me. I picked up the battery and continued on my way. Would you believe that I found four additional batteries during my walk this morning? Yep, five AA batteries, left to rot on the side of the road.

Finding these batteries got me to thinking about why people would just toss them out a car window instead of disposing of them responsibly - especially since it is so easy to recycle them properly. This got me to thinking about where to deposit used batteries and that led me to the local library.

Libraries aren't just places to do research or to borrow books. Most libraries these days, in addition to their wealth of books, also subscribe to a variety of newspapers and magazines. They have collections of audio and video materials - often in tape and digital formats.

Besides the stuff you can check out to bring home with you, libraries offer all kinds of concerts, movies, plays, cultural events, classes, reading groups, clubs, and services such as stocking IRS forms at tax time.

And they have a collection container for used batteries.

Two pansies and a samara

Neatnik and I joined a classmate and mom at a local garden this morning. The roses there smelled heavenly and we even saw a couple of bunnies. I didn't take as many pictures as I had envisioned that I would, but here are a couple of pansy pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Check out the bee in the lower right corner
(you might want to clicky to embiggen)

Blooming where your seed has fallen

In our own yard, we have a couple of mature maple trees. This little helicopter fell to the ground last week.

Of course, we all know that four-leaf clovers are lucky. How about three-winged mutant maple samaras?

It's a two thing

Neatnik and I have had a very busy day today. Allow me to update you in a Tuesday Evening Bullet Post fashion...

• I was downstairs, providing early morning sustenance to the Neatnik, setting out the morning medicines and vitamins, and relieving the dishwasher of its cleaned cargo. Number Guy entered the kitchen, freshly showered and all dressed for work. Or so he thought. Poor guy was wearing a pair of pants whose back seam was hanging on by a frayed thread. Thankfully, stitching a simple seam is not beyond my capabilities and I even had the right color thread.



• Something which is apparently far beyond me is the ability to count to two reliably. Yes, I know that this sounds funny and unrealistic. After all, I have succeeded in calculus, probability, discrete mathematics, and advanced number theory. Perhaps it is just that in the limit, for very large values of two, things tend to go awry.



• Oh, I suppose I should explain how I discovered this appalling lack of enumeration proficiency. I was merrily moving right along with the Pink Panda String Bag this afternoon, multi-tasking while supervising Neatnik at the playground/spray park. I was wrapping up the 18th round, the one where you pull the whole thing together in preparation for hooking the handles. There weren't enough spaces. I was two short. I counted the preceding rounds, working backwards to locate the point at which I departed from the pattern. It was half a dozen rounds back, in the round where you double the number of spaces from 64 to 128: instead of each of the spaces getting two triple crochets, two of my spaces had only one triple crochet each.



• It's a two thing.



• I am seriously considering renaming this project as The Incredibly Inane and Unending String Bag of Summer.



• But that sounds rather depressing, doesn't it?



• Getting ready to leave the park, I noticed this window sticker on the minivan parked next to us.
  
  
  Gary Gygax, were he still with us, would have been so proud


• I'm not sure which is worse: the fact that someone pasted this sticker to their back window or the fact that I got the joke.

There was a pile of other errands and things today like some School at Home, an oil change and car wash, a trip to the pharmacy and the grocery store, a post-dinner visit to the pool, and some scooter lessons for the Neatnik. All in all, a busy, yet very satisfying day.

Except for that two thing, that is.

SABTC: Update #1

I promised last week when I announced the Second Annual Box Topapalooza Contest, that on Mondays I would post our current Box Tops count, and so I shall do just that. As of this afternoon, there are now 75 Box Tops in the Box Tops collecting box in the kitchen of chez trek.

If you are participating in the contest, please leave a comment on this post with your count, so that we can egg each other on encourage each other and cheer wildly as the numbers continue to grow.

If you are not yet participating, please visit the contest post and leave a comment there. Please, please, please. Also, please tell everyone you know that you are collecting them so that they will give your theirs instead of tossing them into the trash can. I am now collecting Box Tops from a friend whose children are no longer in grammar school - I collected for her kids for about 12 years, now she is returning the favor. Pay it forward!

# # #

Yesterday afternoon, we visited a nearby town where friends of ours were rehearsing for a choir festival. The festival is a huge annual event in this town, so we ended up parking quite a few blocks from the auditorium. During the walk from the car to the rehearsal venue, we had the good fortune to see something very cool.

Antique hitching post

More hooking around

We stopped into one of the big craft stores this afternoon. I had heard that some of them are now carrying higher quality fibers, so I decided to visit the yarn aisles. The funniest thing happened: a woman asked if I was a knitter and then proceeded to ask my advice on string bags.

How apropos that I had just started this string bag minutes earlier. I won't be finishing this one, though. This one I started for someone else who was having an awful time trying to get around how fiddly this is to get off the ground.

Nice blue color, isn't it?

The pink and white one isn't finished: it is still in progress and is now living in the minivan for pool crafting hours.

I seriously have to get back to my knitting. Perhaps at knitting night tomorrow?

School at Home Report
Writing
While the plan was to do two letters a day, it isn't starting out that way. That's okay: we still have more than 26 days before school recommences.

I saw 18 bunnies on my walk tonight;
most just sat still, but some bounded.

Reading, writing, and arithemetic

School at Home Report
Mathematics
I had to buy more math workbooks this week. Our Neatnik loves her numbers. Some of her favorite math concepts are carrying/borrowing, adding up columns of numbers, money problems, and time.

Her all-time favorite math thing, though, is word problems - just like her parents.

Science
I also scored a map workbook. After our last road trip, Neatnik requested that I teach her how to read maps. This acorn fell not far from the trees.

Reading
The leftover phonics pages were finished ages ago (there weren't that many). I didn't buy new phonics workbooks because Neatnik has that stuff pretty much nailed. Instead, I decided to work on getting her to read some longer books instead of the quickie 60 page numbers with big fonts.

Our local librarian is really helpful with pointing us towards books that are of an appropriate reading level but still "safe". This is a definite pitfall to having a child reading above grade level.

The library continues to keep us pretty well supplied with books for Neatnik. Her current new title count for 2009 is 88.

To accompany the new clock in her room, we selected a reading lamp. Now we can tell her she can read in bed for a set amount of time before lights out. Similarly, if she wakes up before seven in the morning, she isn't to wake up Mommy and Daddy but can read in bed. This is working out pretty well so far: on the first night, I told her lights out was nine o'clock. I came out of the shower and her light was off. I asked her if it was nine already and she sang out, "It's 9:01, Mommy!"

Writing
Neatnik started working on cursive writing this morning. The plan is to do one letter in the morning and one letter in the afternoon or evening until the book is finished. In addition to the twenty-six letter pages, there are two fun pages at the end of the book. A nice two-week project.

Mommy "steered" for the first sentence
but the second one was all Neatnik.

In which trek stops before Blogger eats the post again

Today was filled up with a variety of miscellaneous tasks and errands which needed my attention. The random nature of my morning and afternoon segues rather naturally into a Thursday Afternoon Bullet Post.

• If you haven't yet signed up for the Second Annual Box Topapalooza, hop over to the contest post now and leave me a comment with your intentions. I'll wait.



• Glad to see you back! :o)



• At the first PTA meeting of each school year, our Box Top coordinator reminds the parents that every Box Tops tossed into the trash can is throwing away a dime.



• Something is wrong with the weather here. It is 68°F right now. This is not summer weather.



• If we are not having summer weather, why did I invest in four ribbed tank tops this morning?



• Because hope springs eternal, obviously.



• And they were on sale for six bucks apiece.



• Neatnik is wearing a pretty white/pink/green floral sun dress today - with a blue t-shirt underneath. Refer back to Bullet #1.



• It wasn't quite this cool yesterday, so we were at the pool.
  
  
  I love the bright color contrasts here:
  blue/white, red/white, green/blue


• I am currently reading a book which Number Guy loved as a lad: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I saw it on the pool's book swap shelf the other day and just had to snag it. I really like the clever plays on words.



• Have you ever seen it? Read it? If not, you might want to give it a try.



• Remember the lost dpn? Reinforcements arrived today from Simply Socks.



• Their arrival is a very good thing: I caught myself yesterday thinking that while my raspberry socks were in their equipment time-out, maybe I could retrofit a couple of pairs of Neatnik's school socks. Then I remembered that they are knit from the same yarn as my raspberry ones and that meant that I didn't have the right needles then.



• While the socks have been stewing in the project bag, I have made great progress on the string bag. I am currently on Round 13 of 18 of the bag's body.



• I have to wind some more navy sock yarn since I promised Neatnik more school socks.



• This isn't purely altruistic on my part, sad to say, since it will reduce the yarn sock laundry frequency during the school year.



• Most moms do not worry about yarn sock laundry frequency do they?

Most moms just have to worry about clean underwear and fresh shorts and tees for gym days.

It's just a burden which we knitting moms must bravely bear - much like bloggers throughout the world having to endure blogging software which eats huge chunks of their post just before they are ready to push the Publish button.

In which trek announces a winner and a contest

With the addition of nine more quarters Sunday evening, the tea tin contest is officially over.

Neatnik and I counted them up manually then took them to a local bank that has a counting machine. The machine shorted our count by 75¢ but the true manual count on the kitchen table still stands: $92.50. Our winner is Chris, who guessed the correct amount exactly, despite her claim of "I suck at this". Congratulations, Chris.

# # #

Based on the responses from yesterday's inquiry, I am hereby announcing the beginning of the Second Annual Box Topapalooza.

What exactly is Box Topapalooza?

It is the contest which kicks off today here on the blog.

How do you get in on it?

Simple: leave a comment on this post announcing your intent to collect Box Tops from now until August 31st. I'd really, really appreciated it if you would then post on your own blog that you have entered and link to this post, okay?

If someone referred you to the contest, tell me who. Or if you saw a posting on some other blog directing you to the contest, tell me which blog. I'd like to be able to thank the people who are helping to generate some buzz for the Box Topapalooza.

How do you collect Box Tops?

You cut out the little Box Tops


from products you already use such as General Mills cereals, GoGurt, some Betty Crocker products, Huggies diapers, Ziploc storage bags and containers, and Kimberly-Clark products. A full list of participating products is available as a pdf download Sometimes, coupons are available on the Box Tops for Education web site. Sometimes products have bonus Box Tops on them.

Each Monday, I'll post my total of Box Tops collected during the previous week and ask the contest participants to do likewise. Yes, I am feeling the need for some comment love. This blog hosts over 300 visitors daily but only a small few (you know who you are and I thank you) actually comment. I answer all commenters, as long as your email address comes through.

What do you do with the Box Tops come August 31st?

You snail mail them to me. I'll get the address to the contest participants around the end of August.

What do I do with the Box Tops?

Come September, I will box them all up and present them to Neatnik's school.

What do you win?

Besides the really good feeling you will have inside from helping out a child's school, I will hold a random drawing for all the people who send in their Box Tops. The random winner will receive something cool but I'm not sure yet what it will be. Last summer, it was a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

Just one more thing, we here at chez trek have 68 Box Tops in the Box Top collecting container.

Two thanks

It is time for a couple of "thank yous".

A while back, Robin knit a pair of socks for someone. The fit wasn't quite to the recipient's liking and the colors were right out. Robin asked if anyone would like to have the socks. I said I would love them and so the socks came to live with me. Thanks, Robin!

Also a while ago, Georgi had a 200th post contest. I commented as is my usual wont and Georgi picked me as the second place winner. I told her to send my winning yarn to the other winner, since Georgi has four-footed furry housemates and we all know how well I do with the whole allergen thing. Georgi refused. Instead, she went out of her way to stop by her LYS and the way to the post office and picked me up some fresh, new yarn. Georgi, you are a winner, thank you again!

Knit bloggers are very generous people!

PS - Heads up, blog peeps: the tea tin contest is over. Winner to be announced this week.

PPS - Neatnik's school is continuing to collect Box Tops for Education. I'm thinking of having a Second Annual Box Topapalooza. What say ye?

Pink panda

What is a knitter to do when one of her size 1½ (US) dpns goes AWOL?

Oh, you want to know how the dpn went missing, do you? Well, okay, but then you have to look at my crochet pictures. Fair's fair.

There I was, knitting shotgun on our way north for the weekend. At the point that this story begins, we had already been on the road for an hour and a half longer than the GPS had estimated our trip would take. Since so many people drive south to visit our area's beaches during the summertime, it somehow completely zinged under our radar that other people might want to drive to points north on a holiday weekend to enjoy the fresh mountain air.
If one were to postulate that the presence of sock yarn was the only thing standing between me and insanity, they would be very close to correct. To be truly precise, it was the presence of the sock yarn and the set of size 1½ dpns.

A minor knitting disaster inconvenience struck: I accidentally dropped my dpn and it fell into the small gap between the car door and the door frame.

Oh, bother.

I packed up my SIP and resolved to be very careful opening the door at our destination, so that I might recover the needle for the knit trip home, but the, suddenly, we saw that magnificent rainbow, spanning the entire sky and we pulled over to take some pictures.

The road was rather steeply crowned and the car door pulled itself right out of my grip as soon as I released the latch. No, I didn't even think about the needle: I was trying to get to the back of the minivan to recover the camera so that I could get some photographs before the rainbow faded.

Upon achieving success in my mission, I climbed back into my seat - Number Guy had to hold my left arm so that I wouldn't fall out of the seat while trying to get the door closed with my right arm. Yeah, the road was that tilted.

We arrived at our hotel minutes later, still looking at the colors in the sky. We met the rest of our party there and told everyone to go outside to look at the rainbow.

The knitting needle was totally forgotten in the joy of the rainbow moments.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. There wasn't any time in our schedule at all for knitting on Saturday, so I didn't open the sock bag until we were in the minivan on the way home. I took out the sock and then felt around inside the bag for the fifth needle. It wasn't there. I peered into the bag. Nope, still not there.

Then my memories of Friday night came crashing in upon me like a flashback in a zombie flick.

I only owned one set of six-inch long, size 1½ dpns. Now, I am the proud owner of four size 1½ dpns.

Fortunately, there was a size E crochet hook in my bag and a couple of skeins of Panda Cotton.





It was at this point that I thought I should check my counts. I only had 15 spaces on the first round, so I pulled it back, and fixed the problem.





It continued to grow all the way home.



Until it seemed to eat my sneaker.



I just placed an order for some replacement dpns.

Fourth of July photography

Celebrating Independence Day at an historic colonial-era fort.

Overlooks the lakes

Cabin of uncertain purpose

Boom!

Somewhat untraditional corps:
most of the fifers were girls

Proclaiming the whole
Declaration of Independence

Evening was for seeing other sights.

Covered bridges are very cool

Waterfalls are also cool...

...even when they are too wide for my lens

Red things

Yesterday was a day of red things.

We had to do a bit of driving and so we saw an awful lot of red taillights.

While Number Guy drove, we saw some red-tailed hawks, a red fox, and I knit on my raspberry red SJ Crew Socks. We snacked on red plums and red cherries.

We saw no red coats.

We saw another bit of red in the early evening and it was the best red of all: the red in a huge beautiful rainbow.

Isn't this gorgeous?

I did have to increase the contrast and the color saturation a wee bit - the picture was a little over exposed - but the color splashed on the trees on the mountainside is exactly what we saw live, no digital touch-ups there at all.

To make yesterday a really good lead in to today's Independence Day observances, we had some white fluffy clouds and some bright blue skies during the day as well. If you are an American, celebrate your freedom today!

In which trek uses a lot of "tags"

We are feeling totally random and disorganized here tonight, which is a little odd, honestly, since I just spent a bunch of time folding laundry and getting things ready for Number Guy's bagpipe band events scheduled for Saturday. Let's go with a Thursday Night Bullet Post, shall we?

• The weather around the country has been pretty weird lately, or so I hear. Minnesotans have been laboring under dry heat conditions more suitable to the Phoenix area, while Down Easters have been coping with conditions more appropriate in the Amazonian rain forest.



• I think the weather weirdness is contagious: all of June was chilly and rainy, right up until this week. We hailed the mighty burning ball in the sky with great joy and appreciation, baring our skins to better absorb its warming rays.



• I got a bit rained on this morning whilst taking my walk.



• Have I mentioned that when I am not kwitting, I like to read while I walk?



• I wouldn't have minded as much if I'd been carrying one of my own books instead of a library book. I had to tuck the paperback into the front waistband of my shorts.



• Yeah, it did look funny.



• But they were old, loose shorts and the book stayed dry and I didn't happen to see anyone I know.



• I like my (near) daily walks. I like to walk alone or with companions.



• I put another few quarters into the tea tin today.



• We are now in the second week of knowing what our cholesterol numbers really are here. With the exception of a tiny sliver of birthday cake last Saturday, I haven't caught even the slightest whiff of a cookie, cake, brownie, nor pie.



• I told Number Guy that the doctor says that we can eat all the fish that we want. His response was immediate, "We already do."



• No, we don't eat much fish at all: neither one of us likes it all that much. Other than canned tuna, that is.



• There is a package of tilapia in the freezer. I plan to grill some of that early next week, despite the complaints.



• I'll just sprinkle it with loads of Old Bay and we shall all gag it down enjoy it.



• I think that all of this virtue is slowly killing me.



• Laundry seems to pile up just as much in the summer as in the winter. There may not be sweatshirts and sweaters to be done, but the bathing suits and pool towels make up the difference.



• I worked turned the heels on my SIPs last night. Just need to pick up the gusset stitches and begin the race down towards the toes.



• Usually, I knit a flat toe, but I am thinking that I might do a short row one this time and use a contrasting yarn for grafting the stitches across the top. Wouldn't navy blue look good against the raspberry?



• Speaking of raspberries, I'm hungry.



• I'm going to see my new student this weekend. I've got some green and some brown wool in my bag for the next lesson.



• She hasn't called me in a panic, so I am assuming that the knit stitch is going well enough. Maybe we'll purl on Saturday?



• Neatnik has completed book #80 and she's already well into book #81.



• Why, yes, she is still a book or two up on Mommy.



• Despite this morning's rain, this afternoon turned out to be beautiful and many of Neatnik's classmates joined us at the pool for a few hours.



• I swatched for Neatnik's anklets while at the pool but ripped it all out when I got home. Cascade Fixation has a different feel after it's been washed and worn. Might have to rethink my strategy on this one.



• Number Guy and I are re-watching The Matrix. Great movie.



• We spotted a dozen bunnies over the course of the day today. The other day was even more impressive: we counted up thirty-one cute little furballs.



• Tomorrow is the last day of Son Rock Kids Camp. Neatnik has enjoyed it thoroughly and is looking forward to the next one in a few weeks.

Well, look at that: the addition of the VBS reference brought my label/tag count over ten. That's some sort of record, isn't it?

See, I told you I was using a lot of tags tonight!