pool July 30 016

Maja and I at the pool. Click on the picture to see more! Blogger is having _issues_ with photo uploading this morning, so I'm trying a new system of using Flickr.

118 cherry tomatoes

It was a pool weekend. And a friends weekend. And a lounging weekend. This is what I picked on my way to work this morning: This is what happens to Maja at dinnertime when she doesn't take* an afternoon nap: This is what Richard, Maja and I did on Sunday morning: This is what Richard and I did** on Sunday afternoon during Maja's nap: * Maja usually takes a 3 hr. nap on weekend afternoons. She slept Saturday afternoon for 45mins. before waking up SCREAMING due to a diaper explosion. That evening she was so tired that she fell asleep in her high chair while I was feeding her dinner. She went to sleep at 6:30pm and slept until 6:30am the next morning! **The funky coffee cups are a housewarming gift from T&D. They came over on Saturday evening for dinner.

misc.

Friday. It's 26C at 8am. The humidity is at 80%. The forecast for the next 10 days does not show any relief in sight... infact, it's just supposed to get worse. Yet, I continue to knit socks. :) 1. I finished the first of the dancing socks the other day. Yesterday I started the 2nd sock. 2. I got new Ray Ban sunglasses. Prescription with polarized lenses. I'm so cool. 3. We had unexpected refugee houseguests last night. K & J's sanitary line sprung a leak -- conveniently a few days after they put their house on the market! -- and they had no running water. They spent the night with us. Our first house guests in the new house! 4. My prize for staying sane through this week's madness is a skein of Fleece Artist Merino in Glacier. I've decided to just do 1 order a month instead of 1 a week, this will save $$ on shipping. I'm so practical. sigh. 5. I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening when T & D come over for dinner! Yipeee!

knitting is in my genetic code

I totally forgot to blog about this! When Maja and I were up in SSM visiting my parents, my mom generously allowed me to raid her needle stash. And, after sorting and negotiating, I was allowed to take the following: The needles, all Inox, belonged to my maternal grandmother. The wooden cases, the long one for dpns and the little shoe-shaped one for darning needles, belonged to my maternal great-grandmother. I wish I knew how old those wooden cases are -- I'm hazarding a guess at about 100 years old. Maybe one day Maja will learn to knit (and continue to be interested in it) and I'll pass on the needles and cases to her.

list -- with caveat

This has been circulating the blogwaves, and since I have nothing much else to talk about today, here it is. The things I've done are in BOLD. 01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink 02. Swam with wild dolphins 03. Climbed a mountain 04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive 05. Been inside the Great Pyramid 06. Held a tarantula 07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone 08. Said 'I love you' and meant it 09. Hugged a tree 10. Bungee jumped 11. Visited Paris 12. Watched a lightning storm at sea 13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise 14. Seen the Northern Lights 15. Gone to a huge sports game 16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa 17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables 18. Touched an iceberg 19. Slept under the stars 20. Changed a baby's diaper 21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon 22. Watched a meteor shower 23. Gotten drunk on champagne 24. Given more than you can afford to charity 25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope 26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment 27. Had a food fight 28. Bet on a winning horse 29. Asked out a stranger 30. Had a snowball fight 31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can 32. Held a lamb 33. Seen a total eclipse 34. Ridden a roller coaster 35. Hit a home run 36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking 37. Adopted an accent for an entire day 38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment 39. Had two hard drives for your computer 40. Visited all 50 states 41. Taken care of someone who was drunk 42. Had amazing friends 43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country 44. Watched wild whales 45. Stolen a sign 46. Backpacked in Europe 47. Taken a road-trip 48. Gone rock climbing 49. Midnight walk on the beach 50. Gone sky diving 51. Visited Ireland 52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love 53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them 54. Visited Japan 55. Milked a cow 56. Alphabetized your cds 57. Pretended to be a superhero 58. Sung karaoke 59. Lounged around in bed all day 60. Posed nude in front of strangers 61. Gone scuba diving 62. Kissed in the rain 63. Played in the mud 64. Played in the rain 65. Gone to a drive-in theater 66. Visited the Great Wall of China 67. Started a business 68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken 69. Toured ancient sites 70. Taken a martial arts class 71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight 72. Gotten married 73. Been in a movie 74. Crashed a party 75. Gotten divorced 76. Gone without food for 5 days 77. Made cookies from scratch 78. Won first prize in a costume contest 79. Ridden a gondola in Venice 80. Gotten a tattoo 81. Rafted the Snake River 82. Been on television news programs as an "expert" 83. Got flowers for no reason 84. Performed on stage 85. Been to Las Vegas 86. Recorded music 87. Eaten shark 88. Had a one-night stand 89. Gone to Thailand 90. Bought a house 91. Been in a combat zone 92. Buried one of your parents 93. Been on a cruise ship 94. Spoken more than one language fluently 95. Performed in Rocky Horror. 96. Raised children 97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour 98. Created and named your own constellation of stars 99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country 100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over 101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge 102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking 103. Had plastic surgery 104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived 105. Wrote articles for a large publication 106. Lost over 100 pounds 107. Held someone while they were having a flashback 108. Piloted an airplane 109. Petted a stingray 110. Broken someone's heart 111. Helped an animal give birth 112. Won money on a T.V. game show 113. Broken a bone 114. Gone on an African photo safari 115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced 116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol 117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild 118. Ridden a horse 119. Had major surgery 120. Had a snake as a pet 121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours 123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states 124. Visited all 7 continents 125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days 126. Eaten kangaroo meat 127. Eaten sushi 128. Had your picture in the newspaper 129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about 130. Gone back to school 131. Parasailed 132. Petted a cockroach 133. Eaten fried green tomatoes 134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey 135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read 136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 137. Skipped all your school reunions 138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language 139. Been elected to public office 140. Written your own computer language 141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream 142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care 143. Built your own PC from parts 144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you 145. Had a booth at a street fair 146: Dyed your hair 147: Been a DJ 148: Shaved your head 149: Caused a car accident 150: Saved someone's life ----------------- Yeah... but, hold on a second. Some of these are open to interpretation. 12. did I have to be at sea? or just the lightning storm? 28. an actual horse? or a metaphorical horse? 53. I have invited a stranger to join R and I at a restaurant once, because the wait for a table was shorter for larger parties 56. no, but I have alphabetized my books 57. But, I AM a superhero. 60. who would admit this when their parents read this??? 88. ditto 90. to tour it while it was docked? or to take an actual cruise? anyway, R and I took an overnight 'cruise' to Nova Scotia on our honeymoon 96. I am raising a child. I don't think you're ever done raising children

dancing socks

Worked on the dancing socks during my lunch break. I wanted to do a Feather and Fan pattern on the leg, and I'm kinda doing it... the feather and fan pattern is an 18-stitch repeat, and I had a total of 60 stitches -- so 6 extra. I am just knitting the 2 extra stitches per repeat as normal stitches... which is making the feather and fan go skewy. Turns out, I like it. Last Friday I went on a sock yarn buying spree. I bought the Blue Moon Lemongrass that I talked about last Wednesday, then I got the Cherry Tree Hill Supersock GMM because they were out of the LABP. I also bought this sock yarn from Elann in Berry Garden, Canyon Sunrise, and Phlox. Definitely enough to keep me busy these days.

summer in the city

Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn't it a pity Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city [more] ... We were supposed to go 'down the shore' this weekend, but the weather did not co-operate! So, our weekend was postponed and instead Richard, Maja, and I headed OUT of the city. On Saturday we went to the Moravian Tile Works. Very cool. The grounds are beautiful and include the Fonthill Museum and the Tile Works. We didn't tour Fonthill because the tour was long (1 hr.) and once you started the tour, you couldn't leave. That just doesn't work well with a toddler! So, instead we toured the Tile Works -- which was a self-guided tour. This is Fonthill in the morning haze and humidity. Maja in the sling with me at the Tile Works. After all that, we went to New Hope for lunch. This is a cute little town on the Delaware River, spitting distance from New Jersey (you can actually just walk across the bridge to Lambertville, NJ). Maja behaved herself in the restaurant (yeah!) and then we puttered around looking in some shops. -------------- SUNDAY. Can you believe that the weather was not warm enough for me to take Miss Maja to the pool????? Instead, we all went to the zoo. The hippos were sleeping in the water. The elephants were active! Usually they just stand there doing nothing, but this time they were playing with the water. Maja hung out on Dad's shoulders. ---------- In other news, we moved Maja up into her new bedroom (sorry, no pics). I had a slight panic attack when I thought about how Maja will most likely spend the next 18 years in that room! Richard put up some baby gates -- important because Maja can really run down the hallways now. And she thinks it's funny to make us chase her. We got a lot of boxes unpacked and stuff put away, now that the third floor is finally available! Best of all, the filing cabinets no longer reside in our bedroom closet -- so we were able to hang up clothes and can now access the clothes. phew. AND we sold the last of the appliances that we replaced with the kitchen reno. No more tripping over the dishwasher when we come in the front door. The roofer showed up on Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday (!!). And (hopefully) today. What was supposed to be a 1-day job is turning into a 4-day job. Grrrr. At any rate, the dude should be done by the end of today. Our floor refinisher is scheduled for next week Tuesday...

shoes off!

It's a controversial topic -- even within my own household. I think it's rude for people to keep their shoes on when entering my house; R thinks it's rude to ask people to take them off. My problem: dirt. You walk with those shoes on the sidewalks where people spit (hello. gross all on it's own), dogs & cats & whatever make their deposits, garbage, bubble gum and WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE ... and then you want to track that grossness into my house? Track the grit onto my hardwood floors? Where my little Maja plays? No way. This about sums it up. So, when you come to my house be forewarned: leave your shoes at the door. I'll provide you with clean socks or slippers or you can provide your own. It's not really a topic of debate anymore as Richard shares my opinion. Thanks. I think the only time I would suspend my request would be at a party. To that end, I got enough yarn today to knit up 6 pairs of socks. Woohoo!

carpet installed!

Here is Maja's room when we moved in. Here are some pics of Maja's room, painted and with new carpet The new carpet is awesome. It's soft and sproingy! And, as much as I love my Emerson, he will be banned from the 3rd floor. Because, you see, Emerson like to push his toys UNDER low objects (coffee tables, shelves, etc.) and then tries to dig them out. And when he digs, he scratches up the carpet. And, you see, Emerson also has moments of bad dog behaviour, and I don't want that on my new carpet. I think I can enforce his banishment for as long as we have baby gates up on the stairways. After they're gone, it'll be a different ball game.

soothing

I find the idea and the colours of these sock yarns cooling and soothing. Cherry Tree Hill Supersock LABP Blue Moon Lemongrass We did get a nice storm last night and the weather is cooler, but not yet comfortable. ----------- The fiber gods (aka carpet installers) did NOT show up yesterday. sigh. So, apparently they're going to come today instead. No pictures, therefore, of the completed Maja room.

i lied

i was wrong. mea maxima culpa. I STILL HATE PAINT. Last night I did the trim in Maja's room -- the room was hot and sticky, I was tired and hot, it was late, Maja had a fussy evening... and I'm up in her soon-to-be-done room sweating and crawling around on the floor with a bucket of paint. Curses! I have no pictures. But, if* the carpet installers are fiber gods, then all will be done by tonight and I'll take some pics tomorrow morning. When will this heat wave end? Here's part of the text from the National Weather Service (emphasis mine): NEW CASTLE-MERCER- GLOUCESTER-CAMDEN-NORTHWESTERN BURLINGTON- CHESTER-MONTGOMERY-BUCKS- DELAWARE-PHILADELPHIA- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WILMINGTON...TRENTON... GLASSBORO... CAMDEN...CHERRY HILL... MOORESTOWN...MOUNT HOLLY...WEST CHESTER... NORRISTOWN...DOYLESTOWN... MEDIA 420 AM EDT TUE JUL 18 2006

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM EDT THIS EVENING...

A VERY HOT AIR MASS WILL REMAIN OVER OUR REGION TODAY AND A WEST TO SOUTHWEST WIND WILL BRING AN INCREASE IN HUMIDITY. THE HUMIDITY COMBINED WITH THE HEAT WILL RESULT IN DANGEROUS CONDITIONS. TEMPERATURES SHOULD RISE INTO THE UPPER 90S DURING THE AFTERNOON AND HEAT INDEX VALUES ARE FORECAST TO RANGE FROM 100 TO 105 AT THAT TIME.

SOME RELIEF FROM THE HEAT IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE TONIGHT AS A COLD FRONT DROPS DOWN FROM THE NORTHWEST. THE FRONT MAY BRING SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TO OUR REGION DURING THIS EVENING AND OVERNIGHT. WHILE IT SHOULD CONTINUE TO BE VERY WARM ON WEDNESDAY, TEMPERATURES ARE NOT EXPECTED TO RISE MUCH ABOVE THE 90 DEGREE MARK.

------------ *apparently one of the installer's trucks broke down yesterday, pushing back all the contracts by one day. So, while they're going to try really hard to come today, it may not happen until tomorrow.

elyn's Daffodil socks

I gave these Daffodil Socks to Elyn as her 'prize' for being the first person to comment on my 100th post. So, here's a picture of Elyn, her new socks, and Maggie-the-dog sitting on their fronts steps in Ottawa. Where it's just as hot as here but being good friend that Elyn is, she still obliged to put on wool socks to pose for a picture. :)

Katia doesn't do triple digits

Hello. It's hot outside. It's 7:30am and it's hot and gross and sweaty. And the temps are supposed to go up to 100F today. All together now: YUCK. Katia doesn't do triple digits. Not weather wise; not age wise; not salary-wise (I wish). If I had enough vacation time I'd be heading back to Sault Ste. Marie! But, alas, I'm stuck here in an urban diaspora* of concrete and trash and stink... yes, nothing smells worse than a city in 100 degree weather. Weekend was good! Saturday morning was Home Depot and groceries. At Home Depot we bought the paint for Maja's room, which I wanted to finish painting this weekend because the new carpet is being installed on Tuesday! I did finish, except for the trim. Richard took a picture of me last night while I was just completing the last few panels... Now, you all know how I feel about paint. But, somehow, I didn't mind painting this room at all. Probably because I'm painting it for Miss Maja -- and because we'll all get to enjoy it. Unlike the old house, where we were painting under extreme pressure for people we didn't know, this time I'm painting under mild pressure for a little creature I love. Also, I got to pick the paint colours. :) Sunday was a morning of lounging at the pool and then a bbq in the late afternoon. Ahhh, perfect summer activities. * from dictionary.com: 3. diaspora a. A dispersion of a people from their original homeland. b. The community formed by such a people

Maja at Agawa Bay (video)

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

Maja and Auntie Nan play in the water at Agawa Bay. See July 9 post below for more pictures!!!

chicken wire and 2x4s

We went to the Zoo in the Soo. I love my hometown, and this zoo just fits in with the quirkiness of it all. We saw coyotes, racoons, cougars, llamas, and well: lions. Yes, 2 female lions. Now, the part that made me queasy, was that the lion cage was essentially made of chicken wire and 2x4s. I'm not kidding. And even scarier, is that the lions decided that Maja might make a good lunch... because when she wandered up to the outside fence around their inside fence/enclosure they started pacing and giving her the eye. We moved on to another exhibit... Here is Maja inspecting the lions. Can you see them back there behind the weeds and chicken wire, pacing? Mmmm, lunch. And then we have this at the Bobcat cage. Is this enough warning to ward off a lawsuit? Auntie Nan and Maja seem unfazed by this all. The bathroom at the zoo. And the best part, the Petting Zoo portion. Maja made friends with a very old goat. It was a really a great morning and everyone had a lot of fun!

Agawa Bay

Today we drove north of the Soo to Agawa Bay, part of the Lake Superior Provincial Park system. This is a gorgeous area of Northern Ontario, and the shores of Lake Superior have a haunting beauty. Growing up in the Soo, we often went camping at Agawa Bay, Pancake Bay, or Wakami Lake (I like the name of that one). Dad would choose one child per summer for a weeklong camping trip -- so we could spend some one-on-one time with dad, and so mom could have a little break... Maja, Kiva, Auntie Nan enjoy the water Omi and Papa are sacked out on the beach. I think the 6am wake-up calls are starting to wear them out...

v.a.c.a.t.i.o.n.

Huh, you don't post for a few days and people get upset! Ok! I'm on vacation. We're here in Canada in my hometown, at the house where I grew up, visiting Omi & Papa. Today was our first full day, and what a day it was! Maja had slept well last night... so we had a jam-packed day planned. First, Maja helped Omi water the garden: Then we went out to visit Elyn, Mike, Suzanne and Maggie. Maja tried to make friends with the Magsters... but this is about as close as she got. Apparently Maggie is a known Toddler-Chomper. Elyn taught Maja how to pick raspberries. Of course, Maja didn't discern between ripe and unripe... but somehow she managed to eat a lot of raspberries! Lunch in Richard's Landing... Omi and Maja (and the new Canada ball) make their way to the restaurant. After an afternooon nap, Maja hangs out in the backyard. In the second picture, Papa and Maja play with the 'pet rock' which Omi gave her.