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Hello Zoe! August 6, 2008  Introducing Miss Zoe Grace! 6lbs 9ounces and 19.25" of cute baby burrito goodness!!! Monday was torture. Ok, it was mild, painless torture compared to what my sister in law went through, but it was torture waiting around to hear of any news. I made phone calls to my mom every two hours and most of the day was uneventful. Finally, around 7:30 my time I got the call from my mom, and in between the crying I got out that Zoe was born. Well, I figured that Zoe was here when she was crying, but I had to get the details. Stephanie's mom came out to show photos and I had to let them go so they could all ooh and ahhh.  This is my mom, Grandma Moosie. Or just Moosie. A little story on that name....back in high school I started calling her Moo-Moo as a nickname for Mom. I think she was collecting those cow figurines at the time and the name sort of stuck and then evolved to Moosie. I think Moosie sounds better for her because she's too young to be a grandma, or grannie, or nanny or nana.  Here is the proud Papa with my dad, who hasn't figured out a name for himself yet. He will be "that guy over there" for awhile I suppose until she can start babbling out something. I hope she gets your grin, Curt!!! These are photos I pilfered from Curtis and my parents. There is actually a really good photo that I love of mom, dad and baby, but mom and dad are still teary eyed and mom is very tired and so I think I will wait until there are some better photos of the happy family when they are a little more rested and presentable to the public. Which means, this weekend I am going to have my camera out constantly so there will be some good photo shots coming this way next week! A few minor things...I accomplished one thing on my 28 for 28 list. The scrapbook is DONE! Hurrah! Just a matter of sitting down and doing it. Glad it is out of the way now! No more theme albums for me. Phew! Um, I guess it was one minor thing...and I am going to take the next week off from blogging. I'll be out of town and so expect to see me again around next Tuesday. :) Until then, have a great week and weekend! 15 lbs of Passionfruit August 3, 2008  I think I have a fortune in those baskets. Passionfruit sell for several dollars each at the store. These are the result of the pollination a few weeks ago. The green ones are from a different vine, a different species, and we have to wait until they are wrinkly before we eat them. Chris made some juice out of the two we had in the fridge today. He said it was good!  We went out to see if we could find any more that had been left on the vine and Chris tossed one to Baloo to play with. Well, instead of playing with it, he ate it! And then Chris threw him a runty one that wasn't going to make it and now he's addicted because he STOLE one from the table! At least we know he's a healthy dog and eats his fruits and vegetables!  We've been getting some zebra longwings in the yard lately. They are very hard to photograph because they rarely sit still, but I've gotten good photos of them in the past.  These are what we found left on the vine after the first go 'round. Now that we've harvested the fruit we are going to wait a few days for more flowers and do another round of pollination! I may be having a passiofruit party!  These are the measley corn cobs that we harvested from the plants. Yeah, they didn't do so hot, but it was fun to grow while we did it. The kernals were already trying to germinate!  Anyone have a recipe for one piece of okra??? Heh! The okra is from some seeds at Fruit and Spice Park that we got back in May. I need a whole bed of okra for any real results. I'll save the seeds, though.  And finally, after almost four years, we have ylang-ylang flowers!! They aren't quite ripened yet, need to turn yellow some, and then I can enjoy the heady aroma daily! This is probably the best smelling plant out there! We need to replant this tree soon into a bigger pot. It honestly should go in the ground, but these trees are hard to find and expensive, so I'd like to keep it around!  Somehow, this little kid is going to have his own kid tomorrow. She's going to be just as cute! Can you tell I am getting antsy. I'm going to have both cell phones out and ready to go! Here's to you bro...you'll be a great Dad! *hugs* Ahhh, August August 2, 2008  Isn't he such a cute doggie???  A sweet, cold nose.  And little beggar eyes that say, "Please, I want another treat, or perhaps two scoops of food???". He has the sweetest little eyelashes, too! On the agenda today: veg, light chores, scrapbook and some art. I also made four new headbands last night, the lacy kind, in red, pink, natural, and black. I am going to do at least one more of each color in another pattern. I was hoping maybe to get them up tomorrow, but I think I am going to shoot for Wednesday instead, just because I have some other things I want to do as well. I am making these a little more snug, in fact I almost had a difficult time getting them on my head to try it out! But, it is cotton and they stretched enough and now they are good to go. I think the lacy ones are just going to stretch a little bit more than the others, but I'm working on making them better! Today I am making a lofty goal of scrapbooking a zillion pages so I can knock out a goal on my 28 for 28 list. We did sign up for the photography class so I can knock that off in a few months. I am looking forward to the pottery class, but that won't be until the new year probably. Well, one more cup of coffee and I'm on the ground running! Been a few days July 30, 2008 The problem with blogging is that eventually you take a few days off and then it turns into a few more days and before you know it you feel like blogging has just fallen by the wayside. I haven't felt like I had a lot to say lately, though in this post I might be able to utlize my very special pensieve and whisk away some thoughts from the past few days. Speaking of Harry Potter, today I saw the preview to Half Blood Prince, which I think is due out in November. Holy moly, this looks so awesome!!! I have a feeling this will be the best movie yet, and the last one was pretty darn good. The only one that can top it is the final book. This actually put me in the mood to re-read the last book, which sadly enough was a year ago. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days! This past weekend we went to Key Largo for the day for a little work thing with Chris' coworkers. The company had rented a small boat for the day, taking some people out in the morning to fish and others in the afternoon to snorkel. We also found out a lot of people were staying at the Holiday Inn and making a long weekend out of it, but we didn't have arrangements in advance for Baloo and just made a day out of it. We went with the fishing group and Chris' goal was to catch fish, obviously. I hadn't been on a boat in awhile, or at least a small-ish boat and so I was worried about getting a bit seasick. Luckily I was good to go and we drifted the sargassum line just west of Molasses Reef for awhile. Nothing was biting so we moved in a bit and they droped their lines to see about catching snapper. The water was only 15-30 feet deep in this area so a bunch of us just jumped off the side of the boat for a swim. It was very refreshing! Back on deck, I laid down on the bow while they were finishing up getting all of the grunts off their lines and Chris said there was a sea turtle. It took me a few seconds to spot it and sure enough about 50 feet out was a turtle. It started swimming towards us and then realized we were there and darted underwater. We lost it for a few minutes and it came back up, nibbling on the sargassum line. It was definitely a juvenile or sub-adult, several years old, and probably a green, just because it was nibbling on the weed line and that it just didn't look like any other turtles. I wanted to jump in but decided against it because I knew it would just swim away. This is the second turtle I've seen in the water in the Keys. A few years ago we saw a hawksbill, a small juvenile, while we were snorkeling. That was pretty cool to see, too!  After the fishing trip we went to eat at a little tiki bar we know of and then headed over to the Keys Wild Bird Sanctuary, our go-to for killing some time and because we enjoy it. It is free to go, though they highly appreciate donations. This is a white morph of the great blue heron. They are very rare and we saw several while we were there. There was even one in a cage that was not doing good at all and a volunteer ended up running by us to get some towels and a few minutes later we saw her carrying it back to the lab area. :( I hope the birdy was ok.  The easiest way to tell a great white heron apart from a great egret are the legs and the face. Egret's have yellow legs and these are a greyish color.  At the feeding area on the bay side of the park the tarpon, snook and pelicans were waiting for their daily handout at 3:30pm. Along with them were two small nurse sharks! You can sort of make one out here. After the bird sanctuary we went to a nursery we like in Islamorada and then went back to hang out in the pool and get ready for dinner. Sunday we hung around the house most of the day and then went to see Batman. Excellent movie! I haven't seen the last several Batman's but this one was great! I did see enough of Batman Begins so I know that Katie Holmes was in it, but Maggie Gyllenhaal was much better as the character. Last week I started a big crochet project. I was trying to work on a tank that I started last year but was irritating me to no end and Chris told me he hated to see me so frustrated so I figured before I started throwing yarn (which I did when I tried to make a purse from a pattern that was wretched last Fall...)that I should just stop and do something else. So, I decided that I had the right yarn to do a babydoll dress. Scroll about 2/3 of the way down the page to see it. I had bought the Crochet Me book with some birthday money and decided I should make it. It took me almost a week to get the bodice done.  This was my progress as of Monday evening. The bodice was a pain in the butt, lots of single crochets (sc) in the backloop, which really did a number on my hands. I put it together on the ride home from work Monday evening and then went to my knit/crochet group and started working on the main rounds of the body. It is going to take me a few weeks to finish, but I think I will like it. I've already tried it on to make sure it is fitting.  I've actually got several more rows done now. It's about time I did something for myself!!! What else...oh, Shelah asked what I was going to plant for Fall. If I can pretend that my yard looks all pretty outside, it doesn't and it is a weed nightmare, then I can dream about the Fall. I ordered my seeds from Baker Creek, but there are tons of other places to find good heirloom veggies. Here is what I bought...
Well, I think I better save something for later in the week. I 'talked' y'alls heads off. Monday is Z day. Zoe day! Plan on gratuitous baby photos for at least a month when she's born. I have to be the aunty who spoils her! Heck, I am her only aunt! The Wild Garden July 24, 2008 It's here. The gardening wall. It is so hot outside that I barely have energy to go outside after work. Needless to say the backyard is beginning to look jungle-like. The heat, the humidity, it just makes beads of sweat down my forehead and into my eyes. It's brutal. I'm trying to enjoy the summer, but I am actually looking forward to Fall. I wish I could have Fall with it being light out past six or six-thirty. I already ordered some seeds for the garden for the Fall. I think I will have better luck with many items when we get past this heat.  The first thing I noticed in the yard was that the angel's trumpets were blooming like crazy.  Then I saw the crinum lily that Chris had told me about a few days ago. This is a gorgeous wine color, very pink. I love it! I've had it in this old pink house trash can for a few years and this is the first time it bloomed. I think it came from a garden swap.  We have two candlestick cassia's, or Cassia alata, and this one is still in a container. It is seriously leaning over and needs to go in the ground, but as I said, it is just too hot to work outside. Maybe I'll get around to it one of these days.  This is the back fence area between the banana trees and the vines. The vines have gone insane over the summer. I had cut a grapevine back a year or so ago and it came back with a vengeance this year. It has teeny grapes on it that I hope form more. This really is a jungle back there. Forget mowing or trimming unless it is by hand.  This is a green passionfruit from one of our other passionvines. We have several passiflora's in the yard.  These are the result of our hand pollinating a few weeks ago. The vine is loaded with fruit and I think they are about ready to be picked. You let them ripen until they start shriveling up a bit and then you can cut them open and eat, seeds and all, or make a passionfruit juice.  Chris planted our variegated rubber tree in the ground a few weeks ago, in the place of where a banana tree had died. It was leaning terribly in the container it was in and we just decided to open some room up with the containers and get it in the ground. Eventually this thing is going to be HUGE.  Of course, only we, the variegated nuts, would find a wild variegated ragweed. I had to convince Chris that we didn't need the plant nor did we need to see if it had seeds, because though ragweed doesn't bother me, it would be dumb to have it in the yard. Later that night he complained of watery eyes and itchy nose!!! Chris and I might be signing up for a photography class next week. We just have to determine what is taught in the intermediate and the advanced classes. I'm excited though! I'm listening to Norah Jones and it reminded me of a movie I rented a few weeks ago, My Blueberry Nights. Norah is the main character and it was a very good indy flick about a girl who is sort of trying to find her way in life after a very difficult breakup. Jude Law is in it so that makes it even better! ;) Heh! I recommend renting it if you are looking for something different. My friend had her baby on Tuesday while I was finishing up the blog post. She sent me photos and the baby is so adorable! I was glad I was able to talk to her today. It's so funny, or rather interesting, how so many people I know are having babies. Honestly, it seems like baby central this year. I'm anxious for little Zoe to get here. I am an Aunt who is ready to spoil her!!!! Myakka River and Jonathan Dickinson July 22, 2008 So, I'm anxiously awaiting news that my friend Erika has given birth to her baby girl. So far, no news yet. She was going in late last night to be induced. Hrm...hoping for the best!  When we were in Sarasota we detoured on the way home on Sunday to Myakka River State Park to see about getting some photos of Encycylia tampensis, aka the butterfly orchid, in bloom. We were a few weeks too late, as most of the flowers were forming seed pods and were shriveling up. We found a few that were fully open, but not the flush of blooms we were hoping for. There were tons of these orchids in the oaks and I can imagine in June it would have been heavenly.  They have a really cool lookout/aerial walkway in the main tourist trail area. Chris and I got a workout climbing the staircase and our knees were wobbly later on! From above you can see the Myakka River and over the hammocks. It was cool comparing the signs to the actual view, looking for where the various change in habitat was and how it has changed since the photo was taken. More state parks should have this. We didn't stay long since we went over to Venice to check out some shark teeth, which we did find. We'll have to come back here in a few months and go camping, maybe for Thanksgiving, as is our tradition usually. This past weekend, on Saturday, we went to Jonathan Dickinson State Park in search of pine lilies, since they were on my to-do list for the year. We hiked at least 3-4 miles and found no pine lilies in bloom. We asked the park office when we got there which trails we should try and we did all the suggested ones. It was a brutally hot day and the sunscreen we put on made us sticky when it mixed with the sweat. I am very glad I bought sunglasses before going because the sand trails would have been horrible on my eyes. To the west were some thunderstorms and they never made it our direction, though some of the outlying clouds did cover the sun for awhile, giving us respite from the heat. I reveled in the wind.  Though we didn't see pine lilies we did see a cool spider!  It moved around the flower as I tried to get some photos. I had to get on the ground for most of them.  We also took Leo...err, ok there was a bobcat print. ;) But, it could pass for Leo! Heh! Well, I did have luck in the headbands, I've sold one so far. Thanks AB! :) I know AB from a forum and she's a great person and I'm excited she bought one. WOO! I have to say, if anyone else buys them, please let me know of anything you think should be changed ie: tighter, looser, yarn, etc. I'm a newbie at this! I have to look at my 28 things list all the time so I can remember what I said I wanted to do. This weeks recipe was to cook asparagus. I'd never cooked it and so I just followed some directions for boiling it, though I wanted to saute it but I ran out of olive oil. I think I found a new food to eat!! Super easy and fast to cook. I also did w2d1 of my pushups and they are getting tougher, but I feel my arms tightening up again, which is good. I hope it helps my back because my upper back is always lacking support. I'm also including a lot of ab work after the pushups in addition to the cardio. I'm working out a M-W-F routine, or at least trying to. I hate feeling frumpy.  It's almost tomato season. I'm ready!!! Headbands! July 20, 2008  The headbands are in the shop here. These are the only colors for now but if I get enough interest I will do more in other colors, but I'll have to go out and get some yarn. I will more than likely get Paton's Grace yarn which is mostly cotton and is the yarn that I used in the lacy green headband. I have two new plants as well and many other seeds!  Samson helped by keeping my hooks warm. He's laying on them. ;) Garden Wandering and Beach Bumming July 18, 2008  Selby was gorgeous for our second visit. We visited last time in the winter and this time several things were blooming that weren't there last time. I love this garden because it is smaller and more intimate. I also like their butterfly garden.  I'm not sure on the caterpillar that made its chrysalis on the pole. The colors are interesting though.  After going to the garden we went over to Longboat Key, searching for a beach to visit before checking into our hotel and going to dinner. We came on a weekend that had a lot of bad weather and storms were all around us. We didn't get to stay for very long because of the storm further north and eventually a wind gust came through and Chris wanted the camera off the beach to keep the sand out.  Not before he got some fishing in, though! He was trying for mackeral and didn't come up with anything worthwhile to keep. We drove up the beach more and stopped on the southern end of Anna Maria Island for more fishing and then continued on our way until we crossed a bridge and we looked north we saw the main bridge over Tampa Bay and realized how far north we were. Driving back south we found our hotel, a cheap Quality Inn, and cleaned up for dinner. We found a place to eat in the information book in the room, Phillippi Creek Seafood, which was the apparent local happening spot. Sure enough it was and we grabbed a table before the real dinner crowd came in. After dinner we drove over to Siesta Key in hopes of finding a good spot for sunset and letting Chris fish a little more. Unfortunately I found it to be very touristy and though the sand was flour soft, there were too many people to really fish and to enjoy the quiet evening. So, we headed back to the spot we had found earlier in the day.  The sunset was amazing and I took a zillion photos, most with a tilting horizon, as if the sea was going to run down the Earth. I tried my best to keep it steady on my knee but had very little luck. A blue heron was hanging around waiting for the bait fish that Chris caught, which he gave to the bird, and was a good source of trying different camera seetings. I like to have a low f/stop but I turned it up high with a high ISO and tried to capture the sunset and then have the ocean blur a little bit. It was hard to do without a tripod and so the bird had some blurred parts. Oh well. That's why it is digitial, right? I have more photos but they aren't downloaded; we had to use another card and so the second part of the trip will be posted later. It is Summer Baby Watch '08. My friend is going in for an induction on Tuesday and my SIL is going to have Zoe sometime this month, it looks. Early, but poor Steph is having a rough go of it. You are one tough chica to still be working!!! On another note I have about six headbands ready. I want to make one or two more and I think I am going to shoot for Sunday to get them in the shop, or late tomorrow evening. I'll post a blog when I get them in. If they go well I will get some other colors and do some in those. They are an easy thing to do while I am carpooling to work or at lunch and I can usually finish one in an hour unless it is a more diffcult pattern. I still haven't decided on a price, but they will be between $5 and $10. I will also be putting two plants up as well, a rare hibiscus sapling and a division of a rare variegated ginger. Marc and Eliana are in Canada now. Go check out their blog for all the good and bad they've encountered. Leo in a Hat July 15, 2008  I made Leo a hat. Errr...Zoe. Leo said he wanted to model it first, though. I whipped this up on the way to Sarasota on Saturday and put the ribbon in tonight. Leo decided to make himself comfortable on the desk and so he was the first to try it on. I am surprised it stayed on as long as it did.  Baloo came to check it out and Leo threatened with a nose whack if he made fun of his pretty little hat.  I made my first new recipe tonight. Lime sugar cookies from the latest Cottage Living magazine. I am annoyed at Flickr Toys because it kept not displaying a few of the photos and then it actually got to only having one missing and I decided to heck with it! The only one missing was the photo of the recipe, but I have to say, they aren't ones I will make again. They were good, but they were super sticky when I tried to roll them in a ball and they cooked faster than I expected and just adding some lemon and lime juice and zest to a regular sugar cookie recipe will be fine next time around. I only subbed yogurt for sour cream, which could be a part of it, but other than that it shouldn't have made much of a difference. *oh well*.  And finally, a taste of the headbands I am making. They aren't all this pattern, though you can't even tell the pattern that well from this shot. I want to get a few more done before I show them and put them on Etsy. I have plants to add, too. Gah!!! I think I will shoot for a Saturday shop update. It rained all day today. I mean, all day. Woo for no watering my yard! Crocheting Headbands July 14, 2008 Last week Eliana emailed and asked if I'd ever made crocheted headbands before and if so, could I please make some in green? Eliana is a green addict. Sometimes you spot her in blue, but green is her signature color. Funnily enough, in Montana I had made a headband one night in my hotel room while watching the Golden Girls on tv. It was out of the leftover yarn from the hat I made and it worked up well. So well that I fell in love with it because I could wear it forever without is slipping or giving me a headache. I love headbands, but after a few hours my head hurts and I just can't stand them any longer. Anyway, because Eliana is such a nice gal, (she adopted a sea turtle for me for my birthday!! I'm a Momma Turtle!!! heh!), I said I could whip some out for her. Chris and I stopped by Michael's and I picked up some yarn that I ended up falling in love with. It's cotton, probably a lace weight/sockweight type yarn and it is awesome! Well, now I am on a roll! I have a two made and I have hopes to get at least six total in a few days and then get them up on Etsy. Right now the colors are green, blue and white and I can probably find some other colors in my stash. This is an excellent way of crocheting through my stash, especially the smaller portions that are leftover. I also like it because I am playing with patterns and techniques and it is a great way of practicing on a smaller swatch than a larger piece. This weekend we went over to Sarasota for my birthday. We hit Marie Selby Botanic Garden, or "Mary Selby" as Chris kept calling it. I like this garden because it is smaller than Fairchild and a little more intimate. They have a nice greenhouse with excellent orchids and just an overall good display on the bayfront. We stayed at a cheaper hotel on the mainland and went over to the beach for a bit in the afternoon and then were run off by the rain, so we drove up the coast a little more before checking into our hotel. I took a lot of photos and we did some wave jumping, shark teeth hunting and canopy walking, but I'll save that post for another day when I get the photos uploaded. This weekend I also finished another book I was reading, Portion of the Sea, by a local Sanibel island author. I had seen the book around Sanibel when we went back in November but I didn't pick it up. I found it on BookMooch a few months ago and decided to start reading it. It was a great novel, a historical fiction, and though I found some typo's, I think it could have been part of the story when the two girls were younger, as in how they would have written, but then again...?? I recommend it if you are looking for a good beach read. Slowly working on that list. It is going to be a doozy! Samson says "meow". 28 for 28 July 11, 2008 My mom used to always tell me and Curt our birth stories. It was a hot summer the year I was born, like most summers in Texas where temperatures are a constant 100+ for weeks in a row. I envision it like I was there, stepping outside of the womb to see my mom in the front yard of our house in Hurst, Texas and she seems all comfortable with the big belly in front of her, the grass is a crisp, cool green and the sun is beginning to set and you can enjoy being outside. And then there's the labor part which sounds all gruesome enough for me, because I ended up being an emergency c-section. Yeah, I try not to envision the whole c-section part, with a belly open and all the guts and stuff out. Yeah. Nope. Not for me. Alas, I was born at 12:04am at on the best day of the year, free slurpee day at 7-11! :) Just a few minutes earlier and I would have shared a birthday with Jessica Simpson instead of enjoying a birthday slurpee. So, it seems that I should jump on the bandwagon that I've noticed on several blogs. In fact, I thought about it a bit in June and then I decided to reinforce the idea and just do it. I've made up a list of 28 things to do before I turn 29. Similar to Hula Seventy, Elise Blaha, and Team Clark. Here they are:
A few scenes from the yard last night:   Baby passionfruit. We are hand pollinating the flowers and should have 100+ fruits in a few weeks.     Summer July 8, 2008  1. Roping Nature, 2. You travel far to discover home., 3. pensive pug, 4. Summer at Stricker's Pond, 5. Summer, 6. Summer Berries Red Current01, 7. Summer mood., 8. Summer sunset / Puesta de sol de verano, 9. summer on symmetry Created with fd's Flickr Toys. This is what I want summer to look like, instead of the hovering indoors during the middle of the day in the air conditioning. The only good time to do anything is after 7pm, and even then it is sometimes iffy. I was thinking about how much I miss Melbourne. Melbourne had awesome summers. We spent a lot of time watching sea turtles on the beach, Chris fishing while I walked or ran down the beach, geocaching when we were in our prime. It also helped that I was home 45 minutes earlier than I am now. It really does dampen the time you can spend after work doing things. Summer has been alright so far. I am enjoying the strawberries, blueberries and peaches and ohmygoodness the mangoes! We tried to pick up some lychee's at a fruit stand the other day but they said they were already out of season. Those are such a good fruit! I suppose part of my problem is the self imposed deadlines I put in my head. I want to accomplish so much and yet I try to squeeze it into the little bits of time I have. Something has to go. Or I just need to ease up, I guess. I miss drawing and painting, but until I can wade through some more crochet I don't want to sit down and do it. I also feel like decades 'behind' in scrapbooking. I need to go through and organize. Working out. Spending time outside. Eating good ice cream to counteract the working out.  I did finish Zoe's cardigan the other day. The pattern was for longer sleeves and a hoody, but I figured that a cardigan was cuter! This is for a six month old. I have some bright blue yarn I am going to use for a 9 month pattern so she can have another. I am highly dissapointed that plane tickets are so expensive. I reluctantly decided to combine my trip in August into my trip in October, to Texas. I am hoping I can get two weeks off work so I can go to my reunion, meet Zoe, and then be in the wedding I am supposed to be in at the end of the trip. I just can't fathom spending $400 x 2! ARGH! The prices doubled in May. I should have bought tickets way back when.  The other day I noticed our broken 4 o'clocks were blooming, however they had two different colors on the same plant! Cool! So, enjoy summer with me by listening to my favorite song of the summer: Strawberry Swing on my favorite album of the summer, Viva La Vida. "It's such a perfect day...It's such a perfect day".... Happy Birthday to Stephanie, my sister in law!! Zoe's Baby Momma!! :) Vanilla July 6, 2008  Yesterday we got up before dawn to drive down to Everglades National Park to meet a friend of Chris' to go see some Vanilla barbellata, leafless vanilla, in bloom. Now, it was a beautiful morning when we started out, even if I didn't get breakfast (grumble...), but the hike out wasn't too bad to start, at least until we had to go off the trail. ENP is characterized by a lot of solution hole caprock, or karst, and it is just plain holey! Watching your footing is a big deal because you can easily fall over or even break an ankle or leg. It wasn't too far out to the site, but enough to be a bit of a pain to get to. Once I got there I started feeling bad, Chris' dad was already feeling bad because his sugars were too low, but mine were starting to get low and it was so hot and humid, even that early in the morning. I looked, I smelled, I sat down and fell asleep. Eventually I laid down on my backpack and dozed while those three were shooting the flower. It wouldn't have been so bad had I had breakfast or it not been so humid. I can't believe how hot it is this summer, but really it is just the same as last summer. The flower smells really good, probably one of the better smelling orchids I've sniffed.  On the way back to the car we ran into the stilts we saw on the way in and Chris took some photos. We hit a gas station back in town for drinks and empanada's to last us until lunch time and then went over to RF Orchids.  We were walking into their main vanda section and this little kitty comes trotting over to us, up the orchid bench, across some small vanda's and over to us to be petted. Now, Chris opened up a can of worms when he exclaimed that she was so cute and we had to take her home!!! So, I was delighted and held her the whole time, wondering if we could really take her home! She purred and meowed and was just a sweet little thing. We were about to leave and in the parking lot I asked Chris if we could really see if we could get her and so he made me go back in to ask. I found a lady who had brought us some yummy lemonade and talked to her for a minute about the cat. She's only been there about 10 days and was horribly scrawny when she came. Now, she has a fat tummy and was just so sweet. I asked and she went to ask the owners but they declined. They had give some others from another litter out but they liked her. Chris went online when we got home and found she's already a star on their site! " LuLu. I named her Penny. They named her Lulu. She's totally a Penny to me! At least after the rains the evenings aren't too bad. After dinner last night we sat on the swing out back, pollinated some passionfruit so we could have a lot of fruit in a few weeks, and Chris mounted an orchid. I think I'll play in the yard again tonight. I'm trying to enjoy summer this year. Last year I just wanted Fall to come as quickly as possible. This year I'm not into rushing it, just maybe having a cold front appear out of nowhere. At a forum I am on we're discussing late 80's and 90's things we remember, a lot of it music. Some of it I had forgot, like this: Elastica--Connection. This reminds me of BH 90210! Heh! 4th of July July 4, 2008 Chris and his dad got up early to run to some nature centers in West Palm Beach while I stayed in bed and mosied around the house and put together the potato salad. There aren't any set measurements. You just put it all in, taste it and see how you like it.  First, assemble your ingredients. Sure, you can deviate, but it won't be Misti's Potato Salad! ;) Off screen are some already opened ingredients that I wanted to use up first, so I didn't necessarily use all of these.  Boil your eggs.  And your potatoes. I cut them into fours this time for a quicker cook. It took about an hour for them to cook.  Go eat some breakfast. I made the biscuits while coffee was brewing and doing some dishes. Check email and lounge with cats.  Dice up the potatoes into smaller sizes. Careful, it's a bit hot still!  Add in the eggs and onions. I used about half the onion.  Pile on the mustard, dill relish, s&p, onion salt, Everglades Seasoning, Miracle Whip and bacon pieces. Use the real pieces instead of the fake bits, please!!!!  A healthy dose of white vinegar. I would guess it is a half cup to a cup of it. Use more or less to taste.  Mix it all up!  Give it a taste! You must taste from several areas to make sure you have balanced flavor. Mix it up more if you need to. Don't feel bad for looking like a bum, it's a holiday!  Sit down for dinner eight hours later after the salad has been in the fridge all day. Eat the yum-o ribs that hubby made up and used Stubbs seasoning with it. Oh, Stubbs is this totally awesome, Made-in-Texas, bbq sauce/marinade. Mmmmmmm! Enjoy!!! Ok, is my family drooling???? ;) It's a bit rainy here so we aren't sure if the fireworks are going to make it tonight. We might sit out front for a minute and see. Otherwise, it is early to bed for us anyway. We're meeting down at Everglades NP in the morning with someone else to go see an orchid. We're getting up at an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning to do it, too. Hope you all had a great 4th of July! Happy Birthday Eliana!!! :) Four Day Weekend July 3, 2008 I took a four day weekend for the heck of it. I really needed some rest and relaxation, some fun and excitement, and some times to wind down a little bit. Chris' dad is here for the long weekend so we have some plans around the area. Today we didn't do a whole heck of a lot. I cleaned the house this morning and we went to lunch at the Char-Hut. They have Birch Beer there, which is like rootbeer, but purple and a little bit different. It's very tasty! We went to see the burrowing owls at a nearby park and Chris and his dad took a lot of photos. I stayed in the car and crocheted. I was losing steam fast, headed downhill for a nap, which I took when we got home. It rained, thundered all afternoon. Dinner was at the little Italian place next door and we settled in for the evening. I'm making potato salad tomorrow to go with our ribs for the 4th. So, Chef poster person, I will do a little potato salad post tomorrow! Now, I don't know if I should give my trade secrets away, but maybe I'll share a little. ;)  I sat down at the computer and the picture window was up and I saw this photo. Chris took these prior to going hiking awhile ago, but I hadn't seen them yet. They are so adorable! This is little Pink Nose, Leo. I always like the way the hairs on his nose crawl up his face.  See, they love each other! Even if Sam gets the "Mrrrrrr" action going sometimes when Leo starts annoying him. They are such good little buddies!  The gladilous I planted sometime in late April, early May have begun flowering. One plant has already finished but two have bloom stalks and another is going to bloom in a few days. I am glad I put them in the ground this year instead of leaving them in a pot. They tend to rot in the pots and the soil here is so sandy that it will be well drained for the bulbs. I'm actually surprised they are blooming this late. I was just taking a chance by putting them in during late spring.  This is a variegated daylily that we found today at a plant nursery on the way back from the park. This is probably more than I should have spent for a daylily, but, hey, it was variegated!  We also harvested two citrus, a key lime and a variegated pink lemon. The key lime I grew from seed several years ago and it produced a fruit. It smells so good that I can't wait to eat it! I forgot, I finished Atonement and started and finished A Walk in the Woods. Atonement was ok. Personally, I liked the movie better. I thought the movie actually portrayed everything splendidly, the characters, the war, the dress. The book, though written well, was lacking something. I thought the young sister was more annoying, less naive than in the movie. The second book was pretty funny and awesome, though I was annoyed with the writer a few times, because it is told from his own perspective while hiking parts of the Appalachian Trail, he was quite rude to some people. Sure, I would have shaken off a few of those who had latched on, but there were some times he was downright rude. And, though he considers he hiked the trail, I don't consider it. He hiked parts of it, not the whole way. Sorry, in my eyes, it is like finding parts of a geocache and then saying you found the whole cache. No. You didn't. Oh, right, I forgot, I read another book this week too, The Measure of a Lady by Deanne Gist. She wrote A Bride Most Begrudging, which i loved, but this book had some farfetched parts in it, or at least to me. One of the characters, at 15, and new to San Francisco during the 1840's, within a few months of arrival becomes a 'kept woman'. That and a few of the conversations were forced, but overall it was a light, fluffy read. Now I started A Portion of the Sea, which is a Sanibel book. I saw it when I was there last November because it was a local author who wrote it and I decided I didn't need to get it. I found it on BookMooch and it was a signed copy too! So far, so good! I'll keep you posted. With all this reading, I need to get back to art work. I'm catching up on my paper adventure scrapbook and trying to wrap up some crochet. I'm already thinking abour Christmas presents because it is six months away, far away, but still close enough to sneak up on me and become November and I'll start scrambling to finish things! LOL Cats July 2, 2008  If you've seen the ICanHasCheezburger website and the IHasAHotDog websites, you can appreciate this. Ah, I love that you can turn your Flickr photos into an LOLCat! hehehe! BooBear June 30, 2008 On Saturday afternoon we took Baloo over to a dog park a few miles from our house. I had only been taking him around the neighborhood, but he really needed to go and stretch his legs a little. Despite the heat, he found a lot of fun in the park. First, he is a water addict, and loves the water so much that he tries to eat it when it comes out of a hose. Lucky for him, they had several kiddie pools! There were also cool little places to do tricks and he found himself a girlfriend that he continually followed around the whole park, marking the spots she had been. Goof! Anyway, we took two videos and I can't get one of them to upload, but I was able to get one of them. He was so tired at this point that I know that was one of the reasons for his reluctance. We wrapped things up and left soon after and I had to push his butt to get him into the backseat of the truck! Oh, did he snooze when he got home! Eliana and Marc are in Wyoming now, headed to Yellowstone. Only a week late, or else we could have met up. I'm jealous because I want to go back and see the rest of the park! Christine tagged me for a little meme a week ago and I told her I would do it, so here it goes: So this is the deal: 1. Pick up the nearst book. 2. Open to page 123 3. Find the 5th sentence 4. Post the next three sentences 5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you. Lucky for me there's a bookshelf next to me.... The Locket by Richard Paul Evans (good book, BTW). " 'You're a smart boy, Michael. You might make someone very happy, if you can hold it all together. But how far does the apple fall from the tree?' " I think I'll tag Robin, Kimberly and Jessica. ;) You three need to post more often, or rather the two latter ones! In Montana my soundtrack was Coldplay's latest album Viva La Vida, or Death and All His Friends. I bought it on whim two weeks ago at Target. I was going in for the Tori Amos album and saw that the Coldplay was just out and having heard Violet Hill on the internet radio for about a month I thought I'd give it a try. It is not the usual Coldplay, but it grew on me and I think it is my favorite album of theirs, though I can't say so desicively because I don't have Parachutes. Anyway, this is an excellent album and made the no radio part of my drive across Beartooth's interesting! I think my favorites are the first three and last three, though the title track is great as well as the other middle songs. Two thumbs up from me! Happy Birthday to my brother in-law Neil! Big Sky June 28, 2008 Montana. Wow, it was amazing. I think it just surpassed Colorado as my favorite state. I know for certain that the drive I took to get to Yellowstone surpassed my favorite drive ever, through the Rocky Mountain National Park. The Beartooth Highway, through the Beartooth Mountains, is absolutely beautiful.  I got to Montana around noon on Monday. I tried to check into my hotel but the room wasn't cleaned yet and so I changed in their bathroom and headed off to Yellowstone. I was miffed that I had a 200/day mileage limit, though you could use the total, 800 for the week, as long as you didn't go over it. It is approximately 126 miles one way to Yellowstone from Billings, and so I knew my driving would be long that day. I figured it would take me two hours to get there, but it really took me three. I had to stop at all the beautiful scenic overlooks, oogle at the 10-15' snow/ice drifts that line the sides of the road, and slow down for switchbacks and fat, rollypoly little marmots that would just walk across the road at 11,000'.  Down in Billings it was in the low 80's, dry and very comfortable. Up there it was freezing, probably in the high 30's or low 40's and I was wearing some thin capri's, a t-shirt and a very light sweatshirt jacket.  See, SNOW! I love how they have the tall poles so the road clearning equipment can see where the road is when they clear it in May.   It was cool to knock out two states in a day. I'd love to see more of Wyoming and especially Montana. Idaho looks interesting as well, at least from the airplane.  Anyone up for ice skating?  It rained a little bit on me, but I was a bit worried about snow. I was driving a dinky Ford Focus and I don't exactly drive on snow in South Florida. When I reached the West Summit of Beartooth Pass, I got out and shivered a bit and noticed someone had tossed and unopened yogurt container into the snow. It was probably still good, but I thought that was a little stupid to see in such a pristine place.  As I came down the mountains into Wyoming I stopped at Beartooth Lake and rested a bit. It was much nicer out and not as shivering cold!  I stopped a neat waterfall and thought I was getting closer and realized, after looking at the map, I still hadn't reentered Montana in order to get to the two little towns that border the park. Ack!  And then, finally, I was there!!! I paid my $25 to get into the park, good for seven days, and saw a mule deer that some bikers were watching right off the road near the entrance station. I had wanted to make it to Slough Creek, about thirty miles into the park, but I stopped at the first picnic area to stretch my legs, take some photos, and use the composting toilet.  I was prepared for hiking, with my camelbak, water and the camera. I didn't meander far at this stop, just down along the river.  There were a lot of beautiful wildflowers and I think I took a photo of every different type I saw! Except the alpine strawberries I saw...I should've gotten those!  At my next stop I saw it was a decent hiking trail and really strapped on everything for this.   The trail was nice, unfortunately I ended up at the creek again. The trail started again on the other side and I wasn't about to cross cold, rushing water with no one else with me. So, I went back up the hill after taking some photos of the flowers and wandered on down the road, probably half a mile or so until I came across a barage of cars parked on the side of the road. This must mean wildlife.  And by wildlife, it was a super awesomely cool black bear!!!! *check* My first bear in the wild! SWEET! I immediately parked the car, jumped out to get the 300mm lens out of the trunk and promptly started shooting photos. It was at least a football field away, munching on the berries and flowers, and being very docile. I really hadn't expected it to be this easy! I did hear later at my conference that someone I knew saw four during their time in the park, including a grizzly and her cub. Apparently the recent snowfall two weeks ago has forced some of the from the mountains looking for food.  Here you can see the distance it was from us. Also, I found out from talking to some other folks that there was another one on the opposite side, behind me, way up in a little cove. I drove on down the road, still thinking I'd try for Slough Creek and ended up stopping again at Trout Lake. There were a lot of cars parked there so I figured it would be a nice hike. Whew, and was it a hike! Going from flat, sea level Florida, to steep, elevated Montana is not easy!  This was a very nice trail and I was surpassed by a family of trout fisherman, headed up to the lake.  More rest just meant more time for taking photos.   The lake was peaceful, dotted with fishermen/ladies/kids and I could have pulled up a chair or blanket and spent the rest of the evening reading. Instead I stayed for about 15 minutes before heading back down so I could start driving back. A three hour drive meant it would take just as long to get back to Billings. As I was leaving I stopped to see the bear again, and then stopped right before the Thunderer trail and asked what everyone was looking at...a moose and her baby. There wasn't enough room to pull over so I kept on driving only to see another group of people looking at something. I turned around to take a look.  It was a moose! Without antlers, and it really looks like a big, wild horse! Still cool, though! It stayed sunny through my entire trip through the mountains, even when I came down from them and into Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was work all day. Well, conference work, listening to speakers. I'll talk a bit about some of the topics, in particular climate change, in a few days. Tuesday I couldn't find anyone really to do anything with so I drove the hour back down to Red Lodge to do some tourist shopping and eat dinner. First, I stopped at Cooney State Park to see if there was anything worthwhile there. It was mostly just lake and no real hiking, but on the way I did see two turkeys and deer.  In Red Lodge I found some very cute shops and then ate at the Bridge Creek Backcountry Kitchen and Wine Bar. This was by far where the locals go, a quiet hometown restaurant that caters to local food and a chef that cooks up an ever changing menu. I decided to devour some fried artichokes and then had elk! I should have asked for medium-well instead of well, because it was a bit tough. Not bad tasting, though!  There was a great sunset on the way home. A deer and then almost a racoon ran in front of the car on the way back! On Wednesday I found someone to go sightseeing with, a lady from Connecticut, and so we set off in the late afternoon for Pictograph Caves State Park just on the east side of Billings, and then to Pompey's Pillar, about thirty miles east of Billings.  The park was beautiful and there were three caves with pictographs and petroglyphs. We didn't see anything until we got to the last cave.  Yep, those red drawings are it! There isn't a lot left because sometime in the 40's, someone got the bright ideas to sand blast the area to 'clean' the dirt off so you could see it. Well, that just sand blasted some of the pigment off! There is a display showing what they are all supposed to represent, and these are obviously guns. So, sometime when settlers came, the Indians saw the guns and maybe there was battle, or they were scared? Perhaps it was with the Lewis and Clark crew??? Who knows. Speakng of Lewis and Clark, we drove to Pompey's Pillar afterwards in order to see the famous carving of W. Clark in the side of the sandstone.  The signature is under a glass case and there are others who followed suit in the late 1800's when the settlers had arrived. I learned in the museum that Lewis and Clark had split up on their way back towards St. Louis in 1806. Clark had stopped here and supposedly named this pillar after Sacajawea's child. To think that he'd climbed up there 202 years ago and done this was thought provoking. When you view from the top you see the Yellowstone River, roads, farms, a railroad track and none of that would have been there.  We drove back to Billings and had dinner down town at the Brew Pub where we chowed on buffalo burgers and tried a beer sampler. The only beer I liked was a strawberry blonde, of course. Honestly, other than that, beer brings back gross memories of Aggie ring dunk.  Thursday we drove down an hour to the Crow Reservation to see the Little BigHorn battlefield and monument. If you don't know your history, this is where Custer got his ass kicked by the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho. We arrived to hear a curator giving a speech about the entire event, which we were one day late for the 132nd anniversary, and it was haunting. Not many US soldiers escaped. Most died on the battlefield. Custer was buried there for, I think a year, and then his body was taken back east to West Point. Many of the other scattered bodies were moved from their place of death to a mass grave where the monument stands today.  The museum has a lot of artifacts and interviews from those who witnessed the events.  Friday morning I really wanted to sleep in. My flight was at 2:45pm and I'd been a dummy and said I'd return my car at noon. So, I was up before 8am and then off to Phipps Park on the northwest side of town. I stopped at City Brew coffee to get a cuppa and a bagel for some energy to hike. The coffee place is really cool, like a Starbucks, but cheaper. I drove several miles passed the park because I didn't see it. I expected a big sign, or at least a little sign, to point toward the parking lot. Instead, I was driving along and thought I really had gone too far. I back I went and then sure enough I had found the park near the railroad track I had passed 10 minutes earlier.  The trail looked easy enough, but it was rather difficult. I'd stop every 100 feet for breathers, but I was very glad I had gone out to explore instead of sleeping in.  At the top, there were amazing views. I was walking along the path when I noticed a twig in the way, and then realized it was a black and white snake slitthering away. I tried to get a photo but it blended in with the grass too well. (I think it was a gopher snake)  The Beartooths could be seen in the distance.    I followed the trail around the top of the bluff and then I couldn't find a decent trail to get down, but the frisbee golf course had a hole in the middle of the side of the hill so I figured they got down there somehow. I scurried down carefully, watching my footing, and made it down to the trail. I was sad to have to leave so soon, but it I wanted time to shower, pack up and get a bite to eat before having to go to the airport. Montana is really, really amazing! You can see more photos here. Sorry it was so long! I didn't want to spread it over a few days. Lazy Sunday June 22, 2008  So, I was eating breakfast this morning and I went in to the bedroom to check on the boys. I found Baloo curled up on my pillow, asleep. He knew he'd been caught, but continued to be cute, so I went for the camera.  He was so sleepy and adorable! I couldn't help but play with him a little bit before booting him off the bed. Most of the day I did chores and then I got a bit listless. Chris was out hiking with some people and I was lonely. I had planned on getting my hair cut for the past month and finally called and made an appointment with the lady at JC Penney's that I like. It's really hard to find a good hairstylist and I finally found one that does what I want.  Wa-la! A cute bob that I really like! It feels so nice to have it off my neck, too.  This is Zoe's blanket! I finished it yesterday, though I have a few small details to wrap up, but in essence, it is finished! I am mostly happy with it, though, I'm not quite sure I like the flowers/pinwheels. I was stash busting and had started something last Fall for another project that I lost interest in and so I took it and ran with it now. It's always fun to pick things up and find renewed passion in it. I hope Zoe will like her blanket!  After the rain this afternoon I went for a ramble in the backyard. I found a gladilous about to bloom...  A candy daylily in bloom, a plant I got a start of from my mom...  and one of our vanda orchids in bloom. This one is a really pretty one. Well, it's off to Montana! :) See y'all next weekend! I hope I see some moose, a bear and I'm sure a zillion mule deer! Sunshine, At Last! June 21, 2008 Oh, today was good. The sun was shining for most of the day and I got to hang out with my boys, aka: Leo, Samson, Baloo and Chris. Sam was his fluffy self, Leo was running around the house this morning, Baloo thought every time I walked in the living room it meant treat time, and Chris was just cute. We slept in this morning and I did some chores before we set off for the bank and Quizno's and then off to Deep Lake. We arrived and parked, put bug spray on and walked no more than 500 feet and the mosquitos found my face, where I hadn't put enough spray on. I stopped, doused myself again, and we were on our way. The trail was mostly clear, mowed it appeared, but the skeeters were bouncing off us. Not biting, just bouncing off our bodies and annoying us enough. Unfortunately, I had to pee right after we got there, so I popped behind a tree, and well, that area wasn't sprayed and I think I peed as fast as I could! Women have it so unfair. Gah! The trail wasn't long at all, half a mile at most, and it lead us straight to the lake.  The area was beautiful, however you could hear the cars passing on SR 29. Alligators were swimming around, and we figured tarpon were displaying their fins at the top of the water in the middle, and we saw a snook swim by. We started to walk the trail around the lake, but the mosquitos were fairly bad, we knew there would be gators since the water was flowing into the slough area now from all of the rain, and we just didn't feel like getting all that wet. I thought that was a bit weird because normally Chris is all about getting in the water.      We didn't stay long at Deep Lake since we decided not to walk around and the mosquitos were so bad. We decided to drive down Loop Road instead. As we headed east on Tamiami Trail, the thunderheads were growing over Miami. Thunder was rolling and we knew we'd eventually run into the rain.  We stopped at Sweetwater Strand for a few minutes.  We met a muscovy duck that was very out of place. I'm not sure if he/she flew there or was dropped off by someone, but they are an exotic and usually hang out in ponds in town. It waddled around for awhile, sipping puddles of water in the road, and didn't answer when I asked if it wanted me to take it back to town. Hrumph! We drove on down Loop Road and I fell asleep for awhile, taking a short nap. We ran into the rain once we got into town and it has been raining ever since. The Longest Day June 20, 2008 Happy Summer Solstice! Today is the longest day of the year and it is all downhill towards Fall today. I'm already thinking of Fall a little bit. I know, I know, summer is just starting, but it seems to be flying by. I told Chris that June seemed to not exist. I would have enjoyed more of this past week if it hadn't been raining after work, daily. More walks, bike rides, sitting in the backyard. I want July to go slower and I plan on taking a few days off just for the heck of it. I need to be able to bask in summer a little bit. Sip some coffee over a book in the morning, piddle around outside in the yard, cook a nice dinner and desert. Martha Stewart has a nice recipe for strawberry cupcakes that I might just make for myself for my birthday. To hell with no dairy! (oh, I have decided it really is the dairy. I let up on it a week or so ago and it was just lots of throat clearing for a week. Grr! Summer is also about Dairy Queen and ice cream!) This weekend we're headed out to Deep Lake in Big Cypress. It is the deepest lake in south Florida and formed from a sink hole. It's fairly accesible from SR 29, apparently from the fire station there. Who knew??? So, we're going there tomorrow and Sunday I am going to wrap things up around the house for the week so I can prepare for my trip to Montana. I am absolutley looking forward to that! When Chris and I were deciding if we wanted to go to Bolivia or not, we thought about Montana. Honestly, it costs the same to get to Montana as it does to Bolivia, and it's cheaper to get around in Bolivia than it would be to rent a cabin in Montana. But, Montana is all about A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall and that means awesome mountains, small towns and Old West history. My cup o' tea! I hope I love Montana as much as I love Colorado. I'm trying to figure out why I just cannot grow beans. They are growing, there are beans, but two beans does not equal a meal. There are even poles for them to climb and they aren't climbing. They are pole beans afterall! The corn is flowering so I hope that means corn will form soon! I am stoked about that and the herbs are HUGE! I even spotted a few strawberries but I think I missed my chance to pick them because I forgot about them after I saw them. I had gloves on and was in the midst of other yard activities, but I should have more soon. I plan on adding some plants to my Etsy shop on Sunday, so I will update with that here. No photos tonight. Zoe's blanket is almost done, just some finishing touches. I have laundry to do (ugh!!!), and some Alias watching to get done! WOO! That show shouldn't have gone off the air. I wish they hadn't killed off Francie and made Will dissapear. Leo woke me up this morning by doing something he hadn't done in awhile, walking on me, pawing at my face and meowing a lot. He used to do that a lot but hasn't for awhile now. We're still working on getting Baloo not to whine, knock the bed and peer up at us to beg for food. I woke up at 5:30 this morning to hearing him already whining. And it isn't like he wants to go out, because I will head that way, towards the door, and instead he heads straight to his bowl. You'd think those zillions of treats he gets aren't filling his belly up! We tried to show him your photo, Eliana, of you in St. Louis, and he just couldn't focus. Something about that little green ball of his. ;) Oh, check out Marc and Eliana's photos of the Mississippi River in its flood stage. My hat June 18, 2008  Hey there! I made myself a hat!  Whatcha think? I just need to find the right top to wear with it! I might make another one in a more basic color so that I could wear it with other outfits. I worked it up in one day from a pattern from the spring '08 Interweave Crochet magazine. It calls for a thinner yarn and smaller hook, but I used a bulky yarn from my stash and a G hook. Ideally I should have used probably an H hook because my hands were killing me by the time I was finished. Now, Zoe and I will rock out in our hats! I will be the awesomest aunt ever!! ;) Yes, awesomest. ;) Zoe's blanket is almost done. I'm doing the border and working on some accents and maybe this weekend it will be done. I started a layette but I ran out of yarn and now I can't find the yarn anywhere but the internet so I will have to order it. Drat! More rain tonight. Well, more like rain from 11am until evening every day this past week. It is starting to drive me nuts! I did end up going for a run after the major part of it had ended. Our power was flickering for awhile during the heavier part of the storm and it stopped to a slight drizzle and that was refreshing to run in. I did a mile in probably 12.5 minutes or so. I counted up the time it took for the first three songs on Achtung Baby to play. I'm waddling slowly. I figure I should just work on my mile runs for the next couple of weeks and then add in longer runs.  Hey! What's that? A mouse?  Nah, just that drooly dog!! He can do high-fives now! I am planning on doing a video of his tricks for Eliana and will have to post it when I get around to charging the camera. He's so goofy!!! A finished project June 16, 2008  Here's the cute little Zoe hat in all of its finished glory! I plan on making many more of these as they were super easy and very gratifying to have a finished product in just a few short hours.  I couldn't find a cat to show off the hat so Tedddy is filling in for them. Teddy is 28 years old and almost met a tragic demise a few weeks ago in Texas. Two little Boston Terriers were having a tug-o-war contest when my dad luckily realized they were fighting over. Yes, I probably would have balled my eyes out. I had been protecting it from a certain grey and white doggie around here, and Teddy has been hiding out in the closet for the past few months. Now for a short tour on what is blooming.  Blackberry lily  I haven't id'd this one yet, but it is probably a sulphur caterpillar that was gnawing on my cassia.  I know the name of this but my brain is having a freeze. Dum, dum, dum, it's all over the south. Dum...hello, brain, register this plant, please.  This fly was sipping the nectar from the parsley flowers. Do you want to hear something startling? I just learned today that the snail kite population more than likely dropped in half in the past year. From ~1000 to ~500. 10 years ago the population was ~3,500. The best guess is extinction in less than 20 years at this rate, if not sooner. Yes, this is slightly random, but I am at a fish and wildlife conference for a few days this week and the discussion today was mostly about Everglades restoration and then two topics on snail kites and apple snails. Let me just say that the 'glades is most likely f'ed. Between mismanagement, single species management (ie: the Cape Sable seaside sparrow), insanely low water and high water levels, pollution, the state and federal govmt's fighting over what the next step should take, we're really screwed. On a more positive note, you should check out where Marc and Eliana are now. Chilling out in the beautiful Smokey Mountains! I meant to post, but.. June 15, 2008 I got a bit lazy. It is so easy not to post when you aren't on a roll. It's also one of the first things to go when I feel I don't have enough time to do everything, or if I am too tired when I get home from work. Especially if I am using photos and have to process those and upload and all of that can double the time of a blog post. The past few days I've also been very tired when I got home from work. It was rainy and dreary the entire week. I don't know how people in the northwest deal with that all the time. It felt more like fall, or rather it looked like fall outside because it felt like summer outside, and the rain and clouds just kept hanging around. We got a break yesterday afternoon and though we still need the rain, a few days of sun would be so good. Yesterday was our sixth anniversary. We spent the morning sleeping in and I made some canned cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We headed out the door for a few errands and then went to see artist Wyland and Guy Harvey painting Wyland's 99th Whaling Wall over in North Lauderdale. We seemed to get there just in time for the dedication ceremony and people were crowded around the stadium that was set up for Wyland. The wall was pretty nice, but not as good as the one in Marathon on the K-Mart.  Of course I had my photo taken with a lot of the sea turtles.  We listened to the speech from Wyland for awhile and then meandered around some more.  I was getting flashbacks to middle school when I was really at the height of my ocean loving self.  I would have really kissed the wall, but I didn't know what the red tape was for. I found out that it was for the tape cutting ceremony.  Chris liked the Guy Harvey paintings better.  We nixed seeing Indiana Jones for taking a nap when we got home. For dinner Chris took me to a place I'd never heard of, but he'd had recommendations of the place and had seen it on tv. We went to a little restaurant that has been around since the 20's, Cap's Place. It is in Lighthouse Point, just north of the Hillsbourough Inlet.  The cool thing is that you have to take a little boat over to the island it is on. So, we watched the ritzy houses and large yachts as we rode over with a few other passengers.  We were thirty minutes early for our reservations so we went to the bar, which is in a separate building, and grabbed a glass of wine for me and a coke for Chris. Then we walked to the beach area and relaxed for a bit.  I had to crop and zoom on this because we had half of the picnic table in the photo, too. Dinner started off very quiet. The building is still the original building and it has a lot of old photos and memorabilia on the wall. Eliana, you'd of tried to take this super awesome pen and ink drawing of a kingfisher! Winston Churchill also ate at this little ol' place, once upon a time. I tried four new things for dinner. First, Chris ordered calamari for an appetizer. Now, calamari is bait to me. Just bags of icky bait. So, I wasn't that keen on trying it out, but Chris looked cute and so I caved. ;) It wasn't too bad. At first it was a bit rubbery but then the taste grew on me. Then, with our meals you had a choice of salads, fruit, regular or hearts of palm. Chris ordered the hearts of palm salad and so I tasted a bit of it. We were both expecting something more fibrous. I mean, just looking at a cabbage palm you wouldn't think it would be appetizing. It was sort of like coleslaw, but pretty good for a first time. Next, I couldn't decide on what to eat for dinner. I love crab and crab claws sounded good as well as the supposedly very lumpy crab cakes. Then, there was the option of pompano. That is a fish I'd never had before and I rarely, if ever, see it on the menu. So, that's what I tried. It had a very strong flavor at first that mellowed with each bite. Chris ordered a shellfish platter with scallops, shrimp and some fish. He decided to be cute and convincing again and so I tried scallops because, again, I'd never had them. Not too shabby at all! It had a shrimp taste, but with a tougher texture. Overall, I'd probably eat them again. We somehow managed to stuff in desert. Chris had a Reese's pie and I had to get Key Lime. Somehow we waddled out of the restaurant and back onto the dock.  There were a couple of cats running about the place, lounging wherever they found a comfy spot. At first I thought this kitty had gotten into a cat fight and a piece of its ear was missing from the fight. Then I remembered Eliana telling me that is how they identify cats they have spayed or neutered.  Oh, I forgot to tell you what I got for my present! Remember a few weeks ago (posts ago) at the orchid festival I mentioned the super cool jewelry artist Dawn Vertrees? Well, apparently Chris had found her site prior to the show and had ordered me the little ghost orchid pendant and necklace!!!! It is so pretty and I love it! I got him a Garmin Nuvi, the car GPS. It had worked pretty well, though it has told us some weird directions a few times. I am going to try and blog every day this week. *promise*! Hats on Cats June 10, 2008 Ah, one more baby this summer! That means I am already working hard on my niece's baby blanket and lots of cute little baby clothes! Today I started working on a little beanie for Zoe. Sam and Leo had to try it first.  Samson was mostly annoyed. He was a good sport, though!  Leo was eyeballing Baloo who was bouncing around too much to really pay attention. I tried to put it on him too but he wanted to play with it and I said no. Darn dog! ;) I was following the TAMUG sailboat accident this whole weekend and I found some good articles on the Galveston Daily News website; here, here, and the TAMUG website. I watched an interview they did with Matt Lauer on the Today show, on the internet. I do remember seeing Steve Conway in the halls when I was there, I think he worked for the computer information department, and maybe still does. Close to home. We've been getting some rain these past few days, in the afternoons. I think it will slowly |
