Erica's Blog

Hubby hates it when the weather is the news, so:  Hubby, skip over this post, will ya?

The storm got worse after Hubby's extreme golf adventure.  The wind kicked in really badly.  Here are various pictures from our immediate area.

 Our back yard.  NO big deal.  Not even a little deal.  Just the lid of the compost bin blown off.

 Cross skreet (as they say in Nof Richmon').  I'm surprised we didn't hear the crack when the branch fell off.

 Two houses over from us.  Hubby actually helped out with this last night.  The tree fell on a cable, which was hanging too low in the street.  First, the resident grabbed the cable, despite Hubby yelling "Don't touch it!"   I guess the guy knew it wasn't a power line, but just the cable line.  Anyhow, it was too low and could have clipped a big truck, so hubby got it rigged so that it was up higher.  They are SO lucky it didn't really hit the house.  It's touching a window, but barely.  A foot or two to the right, and it would have smashed the window and maybe damaged the house.  Hubby called 911, and the firemen came to make sure everything was OK.  Three trucks outside in the dark in the rain.  It was quite a sight. 

We had a couple of brown-outs earlier in the evening, and I made the mistake of telling the Things I thought the power would go out during the night.  Dumb.  Really dumb.  Thing Two was all anxious after that b/c she was afraid that she'd wake up during the night, not be able to turn on a light, and be scared.  Ugh.  She was really happy when she got up this morning and realized the power hadn't gone out.  Me, I was surprised.

 Yesterday was Hubby's annual "Extreme Golf" day.  Ever since he turned 36, on or near his birthday, he and his friends golf his age.  This year, they decided to do it a month after his birthday 1) so that they'd have enough daylight to golf 39 holes and 2) so that they could do it when Brion (see picture on right) would be in town from Washington and be able to attend. 

B/c of the weather, half the guys wimped out [NOTE:  MarkyMark's not being there doesn't count as "wimping out" -- he's getting over having strep and pneumonia at the same time and still isn't 100%; it would have been foolish for him to come].  The die-hard four were there, though:  Hubby, Dan, Brion, and Nucho.  That's Hubby in the picture on the left.  The guy at the golf course thought they were joking when they showed up and wanted to play.  Unfortunately, they "only" got to play 27 holes b/c the weather just got too crazy.  All the same, it was better than a day at work....

 On the left, we have Thing Two reclining on the couch, as photographed by Thing One (pretty good for a seven-year-old, eh what?).  On the right, we have Thing Two's self-portrait made in Miss Claudia class.  No, she doesn't wear glasses; those are her sunglasses.

Those sunglasses have earned her a nickname in Thing One's class, too -- "Rockstar".  One day when she wore them to pick up Thing One, Zak decided to call her Rockstar b/c that's what she looked like.  Then, all the other boys in the class started calling her that.  Now, even some of the girls call her "Rockstar".  It's pretty funny.  She doesn't like the name, but she admitted to me the other day that she does like the attention.  Should be interesting when she starts kindergarten next year, and all those kids are in third grade....

 Since it's clear that I'm NOT going to finish Olympia in the next 24 hours, I have begun attacking my "guilt list".  Here you see ladder yarn garter stitch scarf #2 commissioned by Lisa ("The Teacher Formerly Known as Mrs. R.").  When I first did it, I got carried away and made it too long to fringe.  She & I decided I should shorten it.  Of course, I had cast off already, so it languished in the bottom of my knitting bag for a couple of weeks.  When I turned my attention to it on Friday, I found myself unable to frog back and pick up, so I frogged the whole blessed thing, then churned out a new version in the time it took the Things to watch The Ten Commandments.

NEXT UP = the sweater for Noodles!  Then, fixing Bobcat's shawl, which languishes in "the bag of shame" in the corner.

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  I won!  I won, and I didn't even know there was something to be won! 

Check it out!

 Yesterday was Mrs. R's last day.  She does a job share with Mrs. C, each teaching part of the school year.  She was embarrassed, but I talked her into a picture with Thing One at the end of the day.  We gave her a gift card to a clothing store where she likes to shop as her "year-end" present, and she seemed pretty happy about it. 

Now that she's not Thing One's teacher any more and she's "just" my friend, another mom from school, here goes:  Hi, Lisa!  Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, Lisa!  Hee, hee!  (Lisa, I know you're out there lurking.  Hope you enjoyed that.)

Should be interesting to see how it goes with Mrs. C.  She's definitely more "old school" -- if they break a rule, they have to write out the rule five times, etc.  Sounds good to me!

 Oooh!  New fonts.  Gotta try 'em out!

Anyhow, the chances of Linda reading this before I drop by her house tonight with her bday gift are pretty slim, so here's the pic of her wristwarmers.  Merino wool.  Microfiber.  Cashmere.  Mmmmmmmm, yummy!  It will be hard to give these babies away.

There ought to be another f.o. pic, but I just realized I never took a picture of the purple wristwarmers.  Oops.  Sorry.  Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Hyacinth, also in a 2x1 rib like these ones.  I was going to keep them for myself, but the color kept reminding me of Mrs. B. from school (PTA mom, yard duty, library lady, etc.), so today I gave them to her.

 No pictures to share at this time, but she's coming along.  I haven't touched her since yesterday morning.  Eeek!  Auntie spent the day today, so I didn't pick up my needles at all till Thing One was in ballet class at 3:30.  I am, however, half-done with Linda's belated bday present.  Can't tell you what it is, just in case she lurks, but I'll tell you this much:  one skein Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in black.  Mmmmm......

Weekend was good.  Things went to Poppa & Nana's overnight on Saturday while hubby went to Cousin Helen's 40th bday party.  See this lovely hotel-looking setting?  That's her house!  (And, more importantly, Adri & Rick. Look how slim they both are!!!)  Me?  Well, I was having...issues.  No, not psycho issues.  How to put this?  Let's just say that it's perimenopause-related and leave it at that.  Hubby joked that he would tell people "She doesn't like any of you and couldn't stand to be in the same room with you", but the thing is his general manner is so serious that half the time, people can't tell he's joking, and if he joked like that, 3/4 of the people would think he meant it!  (For the record, I believe he said I "wasn't feeling well" to most people, but to Helen and Adri said it was "female issues".)