Chinese dancers

This is what I love about living in a big city. For the past week I've seen these women dancing on campus -- today I asked if I could take their picture, and they happily let me! What I find so fascinating about this is that these ladies seem so happy and carefree. Dancing in public with some music and their colourful scarves. At 7:30am. I don't think you'll ever find me doing that! ------------------- Pictures of Maja and Richard from this morning. Isn't R a handsome, important looking man. He must have a dinner meeting this evening! And check out those new hot pink sandals on Missy M. She really likes them and was quite fascinated with them last night when I put them on her feet. A girl after my own heart!

Memorial Day Long Weekend

The wake up routine, a photo essay. I don't know where Maja got the crazy curls on the back of her head. Wow. All of a sudden it's summer here. This weekend it got HOT. And Humid. ugh. I'm sooo looking forward to escaping up to see my parents in July. The weekend was good. Very good. Maja and I have a system, and if I stick to it then things go well. 8:30am, playground. Home by 9:30am; 10am snack. 10:30am out the door to go to the pool. 1 hr in the pool, then home. Lunch. 1pm: nap! This can last anywhere from 2-3hrs, usually it's on the 3hr end. I spend those 3 hrs. cleaning up from the pool (hanging bathing suits and towels etc), and tidying up the kitchen. Then, I get to sit and relax a bit (usually I knit). After the nap we sometimes head back to the playground. Dinner. Milk. Bath. Bed. Start over. The pool was a lot of fun! Maja didn't quite understand how to walk in the water on Saturday and she fell over a few times; Sunday it was better; and yesterday she was zipping around in the water like a pro. Here's a picture of Maja from yesterday evening:

FO -- Children of Lir

I actually finished it last week... but didn't get around to the picture taking aspect of it (thanks Amey for taking the picture!) This is the Children of Lir shawl from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls. I loved the folk tale that accompanied the pattern. The pattern is supposed to reflect the wings of swans. I made it with 7 oz. of sport weight hand painted merino.

keys

If you were 13 mo. old, where would YOU hide mommy's house keys? Please, someone channel into my child's brain and get her to tell me where she hid my keys -- because after 30 min. of searching this morning, I was unable to find them. I need one of these. $17 @ Target.

10 (secret) things you may not know about me

Not so secret anymore... 1. I love the movie Dirty Dancing. Love it. It's my feel-good movie and I know all the words to all the songs. 2. I think Richard Dean Anderson is hot. Face it, he's a cutie. He was fab in McGyver and is equally fab in Stargate. 3. I like the idea of hot weather. I complain about it incessantly, but I like the idea of hot summer nights and the promise of summer. 4. I like packing. I like it because it means I can throw stuff out. I like throwing stuff out because I hate clutter. 5. You may not know I hate clutter by the look of my house, but that's because we haven't any storage space. 6. I don't like garage/yard/porch sales. It makes me very uncomfortable to paw through other people's belongings -- even if they're spread out on a lawn for the sole purpose of display and sale. I get very embarrased with other people's junk. This will be a major hurdle for me, because I plan on having my very own first-and-possibly-last-ever yard sale in a few weeks. 7. I like doing laundry. 8. I hate cleaning floors. 9. Thinking about what to make for dinner each and every night stresses me out. 10. I don't like grocery shopping.

have I mentioned the haircut?

I got my hair cut last Thursday. Yip, I like to take crooked pictures of myself in the ladies' loo while wearing my sunglasses.

may two-four

While today is May 24th, the holiday was actually celebrated in Canada last Monday, May 22. May 24, aka May two-four or Victoria Day is a bit difficult to explain. May 24th is the Queen's official birthday in Canada. For now, just ignore the fact that our current Queen's birthday is April 21st and her name is Elizabeth. Canadians celebrate it (even though we're no longer under British rule) on the Monday closest to May 24. That particular Monday more often than not won't be May 24th; however we will always call it May 24th. I think this came about because a "two-four" is a case of beer, giving you a hint about the intentions of many Canadians for this weekend. Victoria Day (or the May two-four weekend) is also the unofficial/official beginning of the Canadian summer. So, my fellow Canadians: I hope you had a good May two-four, drank lots of good CANADIAN beer, and enjoyed a bbq.

mark & monica

On Saturday morning Maja and I went to ... the zoo (surprised?) with Mark and Monica! The weather was perfect and it was a hippo themed day: Harry the Hippo is a gift from Mark & Monica! And a pic of the real hippos swimming in their pont. Maja really likes her new stuffed toy... And here's the car ride home... HELLO Monica behind the camera... Time for a nap and snuggles with Harry.

ch-ch-ch-changes

Most of you know this already, but just to make it official: WE SOLD OUR HOUSE. woohoo! Closing is scheduled for June 28; so, I anticipate that we will move around June 21st. I'm excited and scared and in denial. And sad. Intersperse all of this with periodic anxiety attacks. Despite all the problems we had with our street, I will miss our house. I will remember that house as the first house I ever owned, the first house that I shared with Richard, the first home that our small creatures knew (Maja & Emerson). I will especially miss the front room on the second floor. I will try very hard not to cry at the closing while signing papers. SNIFF. The above shot is from last night when Richard and I signed the addendum to the Agreement of Sale. woohoo. It's a done deal.

WIP

My WIP. This will be a lace shawl and I'm hoping will be stunning when it's blocked out. Made with 100% handpainted Merino in sport weight. The lace pattern is a 14 row repeat and there are 20 repeats. It takes me 1 hr. to do a repeat -- so, that's about 20 hrs. of work. Not to mention the time it takes to wind the skeins into balls AND to fix mistakes. And let me say, I've made mistakes. And have had to undo many many rows. Many times. Don't drop stitches in lace, it's not a pretty sight and has almost brought me to tears! So, in total, I think that this will take me about 40 hrs to finish. It is my first large lace project, so I'm hoping that with practice I'll get faster at it. I was hoping to finish the shawl for a party onSaturday night, but I'm not confident that this is an achievable goal. I still have 3 repeats to go and the final seed stitch border on each end. And then I need to block it out. I know it's only Thursday... but I have to clean the house for Sunday! Maybe if I vacuum really quickly tonight I can get an hour of knitting in. And I can't knit today at lunch because I have a hair appointment; and I can't knit tomorrow at lunch because we talk too much with our knitting group... maybe I'll be up VERY late tonight and tomorrow night! And then when am I going to block it and have enough time for it to dry by Saturday night? I suppose I could block it out on the bed at home and put the ceiling fan on to speed up the drying process... ̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲̲__________________________________ 2:30pm Update! House cleaning is no longer neccessary. That frees up my evening to knit. I'll have to sequester myself as I've deemed Richard as being a distraction to my lace -- everytime he's around I end up ripping out 3 rows or more, undoing a 1/2 hr. of work! ugh.

My new project

Here is my new backyard! I SWEAR it's bigger than our current yard, but Richard says that's it the same size, just a different orientation. Unfortunately, I don't think the backyard is going to be on the project list this summer. My vision ('cause ya'll, I've always got vision!) is to reorganize the yard making the one huge planting bed smaller and extending it around the west and north sides of the fence, with some additional planting containers scattered about. My impression is that this yard gets a lot of sun -- more than our current yard. So, it would be beneficial if I could take this summer to see what kind of light it gets and then decide what plants would do best! I'd love to get a small flowering tree back there... and maybe some roses?

Maja's new room

We closed on the new house yesterday. Phew. I can't believe we are going to get off our current street and move on to a much more family-friendly block. It's almost too good to be true! Moving date is set for June 21. Well, we need to do ALOT of work. Kitchen... replace carpet... refinish floor in one room... paint... And ya'll know how much I LOVE to paint. ha ha ha ha Here are some pictures of what will eventually be Maja's room. This room is on the third floor front. It's got two big windows (as you can see), a built in shelving area, and a large closet. What I find so amazing, is that this room alone has 5 outlets. Impressive. The walls of the entire third floor of this house, unfortunately, are covered in paneling. I'm thinking that I'll use this to my advantage when painting Maja's room and do the panels in 'stripes' -- not too much contrast between the colours, but enough to make it interesting. The closet and the built-in shelf. I'm thinking of putting a cushion on the bottom ledge -- a little reading nook? Might be too small for that. I wonder, though, if I could extend that ledge out and put a cupboard underneath?

you know I'm stressed when...

... this is breakfast #2. We close on the 'new' house today. Wish us luck!!!!

Maja on swing (video)

Free video hosting, video codes at www.vidiLife.com

This was taken on Saturday morning @ Clark Park. I think Maja must have spent 1/2 hr. on the swings -- she really likes them. Sorry about the droolies, but as you can hear she was 'buzzing'!

Friday knits

On Fridays here at work there is a group of us who get together and knit at lunchtime. Now that the weather is nice we've been sitting outside. Here we have closeups of Hilda's ribbon yarn; some "raw" roving that Cathy procured from a South Jersey sheep; and Judith's fine crocheting of Christmas stars. I did no knitting because the lace shawl that I'm working on does not lend itself well to chatting and knitting (or watching tv or listening to the radio or even being in the same room with someone -- ask Richard for confirmation on this). So, I took pictures... and then scooted off early to the B&N and bought the latest publication of Interweave Knits. There's a lace shawl in there that I have to make! The Icarus Shawl (scroll down the page to see it), and I even bought the yarn already.

Where were you when...

I deal with a lot of dead actors during my days here at the Ivory Tower. So, today I came across James Dean, who died tragically in 1955 in a road accident. I always remember my mom saying that when she was young she thought that James Dean was a hottie. So, mom (and others of her generation!) where were you when James Dean died? Where were you when the news of Elvis Presley's death was announced? This got me to thinking about some of the significant view-on-life altering events that I've experienced in my lifetime. 9/11 -- I was at my desk at work in the Rodin Place bldg. Columbia shuttle disaster -- I was in the playground at my elementary school OJ Simpson trial verdict -- I was in a shuttle van going from the Toronto airport to London, Ont. So, dear readers, what were some significant events that you remember and where were you?

pics of Maja at daycare

Here are some pictures of Maja at daycare yesterday afternoon. Miss Gabby (also Maja's hairdresser...) is blowing bubbles for the kids! From left to right are: Michela, Alu, Ethan, Matthew, and waaaay in the background is Stevie!

words words words

Maja is a towhead. Richard was looking that up the other day (because you all know my theory: A party isn't a party until the dictionary comes out) and here's what we found from Random House: "Towhead does seem to arouse peoples' curiosity. The term, the first element of which is pronounced like "toe," means 'a head of light-colored or tousled hair', and hence 'a person with such hair'. There is also the derived form tow-headed.

Etymologically, towhead simply means 'having a head resembling tow'. What's that?, you ask. Well, as you might have guessed, there's more than one word tow. Of the two tows you're likely to encounter, the other one is the one that means 'to pull (a car, etc.) by a rope, chain, etc.'. This word is from a Germanic word meaning 'to drag'; it's related to tug.

The word tow in towhead means 'the fiber of flax, hemp, or jute, prepared for spinning'. Such fibers are both light-colored and messy, and so towhead can refer to someone with light or messy hair. The word is very often used of children.

This tow is ultimately from an Old English word 'thread; something for spinning', and is related to other Germanic words in similar senses. Towhead is an Americanism from the nineteenth century."

------------ On a more exciting front, I spent part of my afternoon here yesterday. This is where less-loved books and other materials live. Poor things. Any guesses as to what this facility is?

Maja takes Emerson for a walk

Maja has been fascinated lately with Emerson and his leash. I think she likes to take him for 'walks' around the house -- and good Emerson follows her around obligingly. This was the scene this morning... Emerson decided he was NOT going to leave his bed!

more zoo

We went to the zoo on Saturday morning -- perfect weather! We saw polar bears, penguins, giraffes... and a lot of other outside exhibits. The weather was too nice to visit the indoor animals. Maja had a good 2hr snooze in the afternoon, too. I spent some time in my community garden on Saturday afternoon. After weeding and mulching my plots, I planted the following: spinach, bibb lettuce, mixed greens, black-seeded Simpson lettuce, 3 kinds of peas, kohlrabi, leeks, and broccoli. We'll see what happens!

mystery plant -- can you identify????

Can you identify this plant?? I spotted it yesterday on my walk home with Maja... I believe Elyn correctly identified this as a Wild White Indigo.

good morning, fur face

This is the scene most mornings: it's nearing 6am, it's getting light outside, one of the humans stirs... and the beast comes bouncing into the bedroom, putting his paws up on the side of the bed -- tail wagging furiously, so much so that the bed starts to vibrate -- and shares with you, if your face is close to the edge of the bed, a wet nose wakeup. Good morning, Emerson! As you can see, he likes a good neck scratching.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Happy birthday to me, I am 33! (now, the sharper tacks out there will have quickly figured out my mom's age...) Richard made me a special breakfast: pancakes! And Miss Maja obliged by staying asleep until I had finished (I think she has a 6th sense about me and food as she usually wakes up the second I sit down to eat!). My sister Annette sent me these beautiful flowers. Thanks! I did get my birthday present last week, a little early: Isn't it pretty? It's small enough to fit in my purse, and I can download pictures to any computer without special software! woohoo. So, here's a picture of the blooming azalea bush in my front garden that I took this morning. This azalea bush was a present from my mom for my 30th birthday and it will be VERY hard to leave it behind when we've sold the house. Sentimental value and all. Here are Richard and Maja on their way to daycare/work this morning!

Happy Birthday wishes Mom; Maja's weekend!

Happy Birthday to my mom! I won't tell you her age, but I will say that this time 'round on the birthday train, my mom is exactly twice my age -- kinda neat! -------------------- What a busy weekend it was! Saturday morning saw us at the playground nice and early (we're talking 8am): Of course, we were the only ones there!!!! Maja likes this dinosaur toy -- she can climb the bars at the end and LOVES to scoot down the slide. Then, of course she tries to walk up the slide... it's almost like a baby treadmill then, because she works hard but doesn't get anywhere. Saturday afternoon we had a BBQ for our babysitting co-op. Richard was master chef on his new bbq, the rest of us made sure the kids didn't get into trouble and enjoyed our beer(s). Maja and Cora discovered the dirt and started sorting it... and maybe eating a little bit of it. But, as my dad always says: don't worry, it's clean dirt! ---------------- On Sunday afternoon, we went to a few events at the Penn Children's Festival with our friends Jack & Laura, and their son Harry (he's 3 weeks older than Maja). I think the kids enjoyed the activity on the plaza -- although they were too young to participate in the craft tables. At any rate, it's nice now to know what the Festival is all about.