Preventative measures

Guess whose glass the sick midget keeps drinking out of? Mmmm Hmmm. Lucky me.

It's a good thing our CSA is serving up large bags of bountiful greens right now. I so do not need raging fever. Calling all antioxidants!

How many greens can one girl eat? Only time will tell...

Cold Brew

Yes, it's like 90 here in the land of humidity and mosquitoes. The dew point is something obscene.

And of course I spent the day covered in a furnace of a fevered achy 2 year old that could not be put down even to go to the bathroom. Sticky doesn't even come close to covering it.

When I finally pumped him full of enough ibuprofen and acetaminophen to break things enough for him to sleep I ran for the fridge only to find the iced tea pitcher bone dry. SOB! For the sake of household harmony I shall cast no aspersions as to the ID of the culprit, but I was indeed left with a conundrum. There was no way I was possibly going to boil enough water to fill said pitcher and set it to brew and I have a pathological fear of sneaky bacteria infiltrating any attempts at sun tea.

So I went to my local tea gurus and happily they had the solution. Cold brewed tea. It's sitting in the fridge as we speak and by tomorrow afternoon I shall have a briskly refreshing glass of contentment awaiting my pleasure. Apparently it really is the little things. I'm like deliriously happy just knowing it's in there. (that and the fact that they have a tea of the month club...how awesome is that???)

Fever Dreams.

Ah vomit. An unfortunate natural phenomena that today reminded me that 2 year olds do indeed need to be taught to chew their food.

Curly noodles. Antique Indian rug. There are no pictures. Rejoice.

ah, nature

A garden can make up for a legion of grumpy running amok.

The Loot

Yes, I finally have pictures of the goods I so liberally bought on the cruise. Hang on, it's a looong and fibery ride. See?


First you should know the one overriding rule I set before heading out. No buying anything available at home. Nothing I can walk into one of the many fiber stores dotting the cities may come home with me no matter how gorgeous it be. All purchases shall preferably be of local origin, with one exception given for Handmaiden, though that's not really much of an exception since only very rarely do I see some rogue Fleece Artist about these parts. We all clear? Good, let's go.

Starting in Seattle:

OK, so this is from California. But it's gorgeous bamboo blend. And the 2 hanks of camo on top are perfect for the long awaited clapotis of my dreams.

Once on board (which is a story unto itself....and for another day) there were several freebies nestled in the swag bags:
Next stop Ketchican:

The Raven Frog Fiber Arts is a silk blend and frabulous. Sheen, sheen, sheen and very subtly shaded in silvery goldish tones. In front we have some great tweedyness by Purple Carrot Creations that was a blast of sunshine in a veeeery rainy day. Both dyed by Alaskan dyers.

On our roundabout way to Juneau we hit Disenchantment Bay for a bit o' glacier viewing which made me determined to find a yarn to capture even a bit of that surreal setting.

This is my favorite pic of the bay itself, though it comes nowhere near to capturing the varied colors I'm talking about...and is frankly in the exact opposite of the glaciers, but hey, I'll get you some of that later. It does give you some idea though of what I was looking for...

...and happily unearthed at Skeins in Juneau!

There are bits of startling turquoise in there amidst the deeper blues and greys. Raven Frog Fiber again. The color is Stormy Seas, which is so appropriate given the weather we powered through.

Then we come to Victoria, and the Churchmouse. Really, I thought I had prepared myself. With reportedly the biggest inventory of Handmaiden and Fleece Artist I was prepared to be fairly liberal with myself. I will go into this saying that I put back at least half of what I was at one time hoarding. Easiest decision first, the yarn with which to work up the wonderful comp sock pattern by Chrissy Gardiner we all received. What better than working seaweed in cashmere?

And then it got sticky. Deep breath. Here goes, full disclosure:

Really, how could I be expected to not by Camelspun??? It's part SILK.

...and again with the SILK. This I am imagining some sort of complex, perhaps freeform beaded stole. Uh, a really big one because the ever enabling Heather Ordover said she would feel horribly if I went home and did not have enough to do what I wanted. Mmhmm. So I of course readily bought 2. Baaaaa.

...and yet again with the SILK content. This time with the linen thrown in. I blame Amy Singer and her no-sheepy ways fully for opening my eyes to how very lovely linen is and how horrid it is that I had none with which to craft. I wish I had smello-blog-o-vision. This is the epitome of earthy silky warmness.

So. Seven hanks of Handmaiden in one fell swoop. Deep breath. That's not even all...there was fiber too:

Those 4 braids at the bottom? Yep, ya guessed it, Handmaiden. The pinky tanish is a merino/silk blend, the sea tones are straight up merino. The autumnal wad is more from Raven Frog Fibers, split with the frabulous Jenniethepotter, as was the other blueish blob I believe from the Purple Carrot peeps. And why was there so much fiber? Uh, because I learned how to spin too. It's a disease, I fully admit it. My name is Dawn and I am a full-fledged follower. Baaaa.

...and so it begins

Friday marked the big kids' last day of school, so we are now officially 2 days into summer vacation and life is indeed looking rosy. I love the ripe prospect the beginning of summer holds. Plans and ideas are running about absolutely higgledy piggeldy amok in my temporarily unburdened brain.

Our CSA has had the rough end of Minnesota's lack of spring and crazy early start of serious storm season, so weekly deliveries that in better years began weeks ago should start Wednesday if the fates smile upon us for a few more days. I absolutely CAN.NOT.WAIT. Opening that box and delving into the mystery bounty within is the best weekly treat ever. makes my day every single time. So to tide us over #1 and I ran to the Saint Paul Farmer's Market this morning. Today's haul:

Asparagus...GROWN IN MN!!! This is a first for me, and the result of several long year's TLC for the grower. It's amazingly sweet and tender.
Picked this morning pea shoots, mixed lettuces and red spring onions.
Pasture raised chickens and their beautiful eggs.
Jalapeño cheddar brats.

...and the world slid sideways

Everything slid a tad off kilter as the enormity of slurping lusciously fresh watermelon on Memorial Day weekend in Minnesota landed in my head.

Our world is at times ever so surreal.

On Superior Fish Names...

Halibut.

I like saying "halibut". Even "tuna". Try "mahi mahi" out.

Lake fish...not quite so poetic. Northern. Walleye. Muskey. Pike. All best said with thick Minnesotan tripping off the tongue. Then we reach the ever lovely "crappie".

SIGH.

Ah, the wonders of nature.

One must admit, one was not expecting to arrive at the homestead fresh from one's intrepid adventures in the wild to find odd natural phenomena right in one's own back yarn. Or one's garage for that matter. It seems some of the local squirrels have not only developed thumbs, but have gained the oppositional abilities necessary to use said new evolutionary leap appendages to both open car doors and reprogram the stereo buttons found within. Apparently they have a predilection for country music yet unheard of in indigenous populations. One can only marvel at the ingenuity of urban wildlife...

Yo Ho, Yo Ho...

...a pirate's life for me!

Yes, the great sea voyage quite agreed with me. Great folks. Great scenes. Great yarns.

Um, perhaps a few too many great yarns.

I'm still staggering around like a drunk puppy though so for today I shall leave you with this not even a fragment of how stunning it was in person shot of Hubbard Glacier.

Can one be in lust with a glacier? I'm starting to wonder, because all I desire at this moment is to be in it's majestic presence once again. (as I penned in my kayak journal just moments ago...) If I could live on a float in the middle of this bay without freezing to death I so willingly would. We're about a half mile off the ice cliff itself here, what our captain informed us was the legal limit for closeness between such a large ship and such a large lump of ice. And yes, those lumpy things in the water are indeed icebergs.

I know, I'm a tease. The pictures shall start flowing once I have some time to play with them.

It's A-live!

'Tis true. I am slowly climbing out of the pit of sick, clogged, flu-ish allergy ridden days that became my April. A pox on April. It also snowed here like 4 times. Foul month.

Playing major catch-up, so there shall be more pretty, pretty pictures for you. Lucky dogs. (and speaking of, yes, I still miss Willy daily, particularly when the 2 year old wanders about looking for him, but our little girlie doggie is taking a turn for the frisky and has anointed herself protectress of the realm. Single dog-dom just may suit her.)

Twas a month o' socks. I finished the first of the Family Adventure socks in Paca Peds:


The Sock Madness rounds flew fast and furious over the past weeks, and as vacation, dog mourning and illness subsumed my life and knocked me out in round 2, I have me a new host of socks in progress to share:

Reversai. In a Trekking tweed. Totally reversible sock. Same patterning inside as out. Sole is garter and quite comfy squishy.

Round 3. Slippin' Strippin'. Double stranded laceweight. I'm using Dream in Color Baby. Quick workup but a bit futsy as you change up the color combo every 10 rows.

Round 4 was the Hippie Ripple sock. My first successful toe up attempt, though man I ripped Judy's magic cast on and EZ's firm backward loop increases about a bazillion times before I got it right. (thank you once again knittinghelp.com!) More Paca Peds. Better pic tomorrow. They rock.

Skipped round 5 completely though I scored some undyed from Aisha Celia to do it up right in later. Very purty lace pattern you overdye after it's done. Afterthought heel scared me. Currently have 2 at a time toe up going for the optional all play round while the front runners get a bit of a rest. Another great pattern. Pics soon.

...and last but certainly not least my Seven Deadly S(p)ins Club project #1, which just happened to be a sock also:

That brings the sock tally up to date. I've also got a recipe for you soon. And a crochet treat. And an update on the crazy packing going down this week. There's a trip on the horizon. And a mystery person sent me a book! A Diana Wynne Jones even. SO the best surprise ever. Whoooooooooo are you, (who who, who who) mystery benefactor???

Fevered fun with socks...

Things got a little loopy around here yesterday:

Had to frog the heel and foot I powered through despite the fever...it was, uh, a bit creative to say the least. As long as I was at it, thought perhaps a sacrifice to appease the evil Fates of Reversai was in order. Something's just gotta reverse this bad mojo we have rolling.

You know you're seriously sick when...

...you find yourself totally enthralled by the crazy oil painting people on PBS.

(for those still managing to keep track, #3 and I are still in the thick of it and now The Big Boy just brought #1 home from school totally fevered too)

I am not going to die...

I am not going to die, I am not going to die, I am not going to die.

It just feels that way.

In fact it is just a nasty fevery achy flu.

But I am not going to die.

But I am very out of the Sock Madness running, for which The Big Boy has been thanking all manner of deities because now perhaps I will start taking care of myself. But I think someone else has to do that at this point because I just want to lay here on the floor. The floor is good. Cool and gooooooood.

Heart.Ache.

We're home.

There's a hole here...a big one.


I don't know how to fill it. He's missing and I hurt.

The tears started as soon as the plane touched down. Waves and waves and waves of ache.

Our little girl dog is so not OK. She crawled to the door when we came home. She's scared. She's going to be coming everywhere with us. I can't bear to leave her.

The Big Boy is very sick. Major league flu sick. In bed feverish can't even think sick. #1 and #3 show signs of possibly heading that way. Moan. I need to fall apart and I have to be the one holding it together. Somehow I have to hold it together. Some one has to hold it together. Us together. Right now I need to be strong. Steel. Stone.

Doomsday ahead...

Got shamelessly drunk at our datenight dinner last night (yay grandparents!) due to the big boy plying me with $10 glasses of kiwi sav blanc...needless to say no progress was made on sock madness' newest Reversi gansey pattern, but the time was indeed well spent. ;)

Plus side:

The weather is beautiful, wish you were here (Indian Rocks Beach just outside of Tampa).

It appears you can consume multiple gin and tonics and still knit coherently if you also swim and sweat profusely.

Big scary down side:

Tomorrow looms large in my psyche. We head for home Saturday morning, so have figured to tell the small people about Willy tomorrow. (found a pic of him snoozing that I had posted on The Chum here BTW) Oh how I dread that. We lost my parent's dog just before the holidays and it was very hard on #1, #2 as usual took it in stride, very circle of life, and #3 in true two-ish style still asks after him everytime we visit. I think telling them will be the equivalent of ripping my heart out of my chest with my bare hands....

A Wally World respite...

The hub and I woke this morning determined to turn this mojo around. (though the FIL is now sick....but I absolutely refuse to contemplate the infectious implications of that right now)

Despite my prophesy, we did indeed find Busch Gardens open and delightfully slow this morning. We had a fab day with #1 and #2. There were hippos. There were soggy rides. There were french fries. There were several free beers.

Oh yeah, and we found a kick ass french bakery within walking distance. Complete with french baker. #1 has rightfully declared the superiority of the croissant as a bread form.

Much better. A bit peaceful, or at least calm.

...and I managed to not cry a once.Until now that is when I noticed the big gaping hole in my heart again. The next few days I hope are as good as today...but I want to stop time. No more passing minutes to bring us closer to hell please. Let's just stay here in purgatory please.

Nothing's really real until we get home. Until we tell the kids. Is reality strictly necessary? Isn't there a way to get around that? No? You're really, really sure? Well bollux that.

For those of you that want to keep score...

...here you go, my tale of woe. Start counting the ways in which the fates are mistreating me while on vacation.

1) The cab company sent a car instead of a van to pick us up, resulting in much scrambling and a last minute dash to the airport, where we got on the plane to find that NWA had reassigned our seats even though they knew we were traveling with 3 small children leaving us split up all over. Wonderfully nice people accommodated us and then watched the stews watch us install a carseat then inform us that it couldn't be in a row behind an exit row, necessitating removal and repositioning of said carseat and all 5 of us yet again while several hundred people glared holes in our heads. Y'all know about my compulsive tendencies...you can guess how wound I was by the time we got down here.

2) Less than 24 hours in Florida and the better part of a day is spent on the phone with our house/dog sitter, my parents, our vet, an emergency vet and various neighbors after our oldest dog collapsed. We had to have him euthanized while we were thousands of miles away. Seriously. This goes into my "proof that there is no benevolent god" file. No goodbye. No holding his big slobbery head in my lap as he faded out of our life. We weren't there when he was hurting and confused. He's just gone. He won't be there when we get home.

Somehow I have to find a time to tell my 2, 5 and 7 year olds that he won't be waiting for them when we open the door. This blows. I can't even process it or I cry and cry and cry. THIS IS INHUMAN.

3) ...and to top it off a contractor set up a wet saw outside out condo this morning to work on a remodel next door. Do you have any concept of how loud those are? So we re packed 7 people and 2 now full kitchens and spent day 2 of vacation moving to a new, hopefully quieter, condo.

(which has WIFI, so I can keep you, constant reader, informed of all our mishaps)

4) ...and we just tried to wander across the street to get an icecream after all that and guess what? Of course they are closed. Seriously, cut a girl a break please!

I fully expect to arrive at Bush Gardens tomorrow and have it be closed at which point my husband will start channeling Chevy Chase and I may become an alcoholic.

Seriously. I'm on vacation and I just want to go home because now I'm so worried about our little girl dog. But I don't ever want to go home because Willy isn't there. Looking out at this beautiful expanse of Gulf of Mexico and all I can do is cry because part of my life has been ripped out of my heart.

ESCAPE!

I'm off on vacation! Tomorrow! Really, really early! Like so early I don't think the grown-ups in our house will sleep at all because we have so much to do! There is so much bickering! I am crabby! I may have an aneurysm before tomorrow comes!

Oh so much to say (one of those weeks with more than my fair share going on) but oh so little time, so here are some pretty pictures:

This is the stash I am contemplating bringing for the start of Sock Madness round 2. I really shouldn't. It's not starting until Tuesday and by then I'm sure everyone will be in full meltdown, but I don't know if I can help myself. We've got DIC Smooshy in Gothic Rose sitting under Cherry Tree Hill Supersock that I can't remember the name of and the band is in the middle of, which is sitting next to 2 balls of Trekking that used to be part of a hat I was crocheting but when I saw the pattern teaser I frogged it cause I think it might be perfect. The big fellow on the end is Lisa Souza Sock! in Marsquake. The DPNs are my first, bought because I fear what airport security just might do to my Addi Turbo lace circs that I magic loop on.

...and the plane project. My first Seven Deadly Spins Club shipment. Mmmmmm gluttony.

OK kiddies, that be it. Off 'til the 5th. Play nice. Have fun. Try something new.

Zombies Vanquished!

The Big Boy walked in the door as I was tossing dinner on the table and I literally grafted the last toe and weaved ends as the fam ate. Was among the first 20ish finishers in my division, which is quite respectable I believe. Here they are, my vanquished zombies:

The yarn is by Dye Trying, done just for me by the dyer Tikabelle herself as a part of a L&V swap. Lovely zombie skin colorway, eh? The pattern is wicked stretchy with all of those dropped stitches, perfect for ridiculously wide feet like mine.

Lesson learned: Perseverance pays. Patience is a virtue. (and helps you not split the yarn when grafting which is a MAJOR problem when you go to snug those handily kitchnered stitches and you find yourself having to take many, many deep breaths and tear it all out and redo it when you hear a clock ticking like a fog horn in your head and all you want to do is dash out the door to meet fabulous friends like Bubbo and Joy for a bit of crochet and dinner and dessert and a beer thrown in for sanity's sake.)

Off to rescue the house and catch up on STUFF. So much STUFF in my head that needs letting out it's amazing my brain hasn't exploded. I'm sure the madness has killed off some brain cells. Let's hope the new neuronal connections were worth it.