Coffee, Caribou, Clean Carpets, and Plain Ol' Dumb Luck*

Today was "Cooler Fest" at Caribou Coffee. They were giving away their cooler drinks, and since their Caramel Cooler is my drug of choice for summer, there is no way we could pass that up! It was a 12 oz cup (which is smaller than the regular "small" at 16 oz.), but, hey folks, free coffee is free coffee. We won't mention that we might have accidentally dropped by the Monona Caribou before going to our "regular" Caribou that is a couple of blocks from our apartment.

At our Caribou, they had a poor soul dressed up as a caribou (though all the other customers in the store insisted on calling him a moose) that was standing on the corner with a sign advertising the event. We happened to drop in during his (or hers...I didn't think it would have been polite to lift up his/her tail and check, so we will just call it a "him") break, so he was just walking into the shop when we pulled up. He disappeared into the back just as we were coming in, so we thought we had missed him, but after we got our coffees, he came back out. Both kids shook his paw and then played peek-a-boo with him while he was standing in the entrance. They were both completely taken by the 'bou. Bug got all silly and giggly and Bean just stood and stared with big eyes the whole time he was in the store. We left shortly after he headed back out to the corner, so we drove around the block so the kids could wave good-bye to him.

Since I am finally getting caught up around the house and back to normal after coming home from vacation, I took advantage of a couple of warm, sunny, relatively low humidity days to start shampooing the carpets. We have a shampooer, so at least we don't need to rent on and do the whole house in one day, which is good, because with one not-completely housebroken dog and little ones that have a tendency to run around with no diaper on and/or to spill all manner of thing anywhere, anytime, we need to shampoo more often than the average Joe. Anyway, yesterday I did the rug that is under the table on the dining room carpet (does anyone else think the whole concept of "dining room carpet" is just plain fundamentally flawed to begin with??? Even without kids, stuff winds up on the floor, or is that just me?) and laid it out over the clothes drying rack and storage bin on the back porch. After that I did the dining room carpet. Not a huge accomplishment, but not bad for the third trimester!

The plain ol' dumb luck came after leaving the rug out on the porch overnight. Usually I do these things and the procrastinate putting them back inside until they get rained on and have to stay outside to dry and get rained on again, etc. However, this morning, I was looking out the back window and decided to be a big girl and bring the rug in. With lots of kid help (that makes any job just that much harder ;o) ), we got it in and rolled it out and got the table and chairs put back where they belong. Not five minutes later, I looked outside and it had started raining! Now, I am one of those people that ALWAYS gets the bright idea to move the rug five minutes after it starts, so I was more pleased that I should have been! The other thing that could be filed under "dumb luck" (but would be more appropriate under "every cloud has a silver lining") is that today's rain wasn't the good rain associated with a cold front that brings cooler, dryer weather, but a garden variety Midwestern rainstorm that just leaves everything kind of muggy and icky, so the forecast is for more humidity over the next few days, so I may be off the hook with the next section of carpet cleaning for a little while.

* you wouldn't believe how long I wracked my brain to come up with a clever synonym for plain ol' dumb luck that started with a C. *sigh*

Father's Day Weekend

On Saturday, we went to Eugster's Farm for the annual Boy Scout Pancake Breakfast. For $5 for adults, $3 for kids three and over, and little ones free, we got all the scrambled eggs with ham, pancakes, frozen custard with strawberries, juice, coffee, and milk we could eat! We all had a wonderful meal, but Bean, who is still two, definitely got her money's worth. I think my parents can attest to just how many pancakes our little girl can eat (when Dad made pancakes while we were in Oregon, she ate more either KittyDaddy or me!). After eating, we had a ball playing in the Petting Farm area! The definite favorite was the huge sandbox:

Bug, the social butterfly, found all sorts of friends to play with!

They also spent quite a while playing on the swingsets. Both kids took a try on the monkey bars. I couldn't get an action shot of Bug, but here's Bean:

KittyDaddy was pretty worried that she would fall and get hurt. He didn't realize that she is part monkey and could have hung there for the whole afternoon. We also got to pet kittens and goats and chase chickens and check out all sorts of other animals. The deer were especially fun, since the little guys were getting "nummies"

I personally liked this guy, but I want to know what happened to the "a":

On Sunday, we took KittyDaddy out to dinner for Father's Day. We went to the Prime Quarter Steakhouse. It's a grill-your-own joint and we had a good time, though the kids got a little bored by the time we were done. The steaks were very good (and I'm not a big beef person, so that is high praise coming from me), too. They also had a salad bar, baked potatoes, and Texas toast. We got dressed up for dinner (well, relatively speaking, dressed up for us...I actually wore makeup). I didn't get pictures of the four of us, but later that evening, Bug put together his "Joe Cool Number One" ensemble, so I got a picture of him:

Of course, Miss Bean could never miss out on a photo op, so she posed, too:

All in all, a loverly weekend, although the temps were generally hanging out in the hot and humid region. Fortunately, it is supposed to cool down again by tomorrow!

A Bug's Eye View

Rumor has it (actually, an email from my mom) that the pics my dad took of our vacation exploits is in the mail and on the way, so there will hopefully be a bit of vacation recap occurring soonishly. Meanwhile, I thought I would give you a quick Bug's eye recap of the highlights of our trip:

• "I need to tell Caffy" - we left our other car with one of Kitty Daddy's co-workers so it wouldn't have to sit in the apartment parking lot unattended for two weeks. For the first five days of our trip, Bug found at least one thing a day that he absolutely had to tell "Caffy" when we got back from our trip.
• "Is it a flush potty or a porta-potty?" - Bug got his first taste of Porta-potties outside of a fruit stand on the way to the visit the coast (Mmmmmmm...unbelievable strawberries...the first real strawberries I have had in ages...at least since Bug has been born!). So everytime we stopped in a public restroom since, this was the question. If the potty in question was, in fact, a flush potty, the next question was, inevitably, "Is it a magic potty or a regular potty?" We also had our first experience with automatically flushing toilets. He was also completely taken by "Magic Sinks" and "Magic Paper Towels," but the toilets were the definite winner.
• Electric Trains and Electric Blankets - while driving around Portland, we saw the MAX lightrail train and, as Bug is a big fan of trains in general, it was love at first sight. Bug and Namma had a discussion about how MAX was an electric train, rather than powered by typical diesel or steam engines. In the course of the discussion, other things powered by electricity came up, including the electric blanket, which Bug had never heard of. He got to see Grandma's electric blanket and has been taken by the concept ever since. He would have been delighted to drag everyone he met upstairs to see Grandma's electric blanket, but Bean was the only taker.
  

Actual Knitting Content???

Is it true? Can it be?

Why yes, since one of the side benefits of a road trip vacation is knitting in the car time! My entrelac purse-ish things was almost done (I started binding off the night before we left), so I decided to leave it in Wisconsin, since I didn't think my folks needed to provide their washing machine for felting. Besides, I plan to line it, so I wouldn't have been able to finish it on the road anyway! Because of seatbelt laws, car knitting is one of the rare times I can knit without having small people climbing all over me, so I decided to go the involved, fiddly route and start my big lace shawl. After three cast-on attempts, more interruptions than I can count (I need a drink...I dropped my toy...how many miles to the next town...and so on), the discovery of just how much coordination it takes to deal with eight stitches on four sticks (way more than I actually possess), frequent and creative swearing, and nearly 800 miles, this was the result:

After two more days of knitting (that went much more smoothly...especially after I got out my nail file and sharped my Brittany DPNs) and about a half of a round done in Oregon, this is what I came home with:

It definitely looks much more like lace now. After taking this picture this morning, I finished the round I was on (36 stitches per needle, up from two!) and then switched to KnitPicks circulars and now this baby is going to sail! While I adore my wood DPNs, I readily admit that they might not be the best for picky lace knitting...especially if you want to do something completely silly like slide the stitches along the needle! But dang, my size six wood DPNs sure are sharp now!!

On the way home I decided I was too tired to deal with the intellectual side of lace, and I was about ready to change to circulars and the only circs I had were my Denise Interchangeables, which probably would have been even more aggravating than the wood DPNs, so I went with completely mindless stockinette and started a Mason-Dixon baby kimono for Little Brother using the Blue Sky Organic Cotton I got last summer with my birthday gift certificate. Right now, I am thinking about doing matching cap and booties using this and a coordinating soaker (not cotton, definitely wool!!) to take LB home from the hospital.

My last, not-so-grand update is my current sock. At the park yesterday, I finished the last two rounds before starting the heel and got a couple of rows into the heel in the car when we ran to the Home Depot last night!

So now, I will need to update my progress bars again and do something about the WIP ADD that is becoming apparent from that list! Hopefully, I can get some FOs out of that list and I am seriously considering frogging Bean's sweater and starting it over when fall gets closer. It has been sitting there for so long, I can't decide what I want to do for stripes, I'm just not feeling the love right now, and I just swiped the needles for my lace shawl.

Oh yeah...

We also got to see Uncle Chopped Liver and Aunt Chopped Tofu for a day while on vacation, as well as Cousin Rigby-Dog and Cousin Bast-Cat. Cousin Chino-Cat wouldn't come out of hiding.

Of Velcro Cats and Squirrelly Children

We survived our two-week vacation and had a lot of fun with Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma 'Dell. There will be details to come as Grandpa finishes pictures (we let him be the official photographer!) and I start getting back to normal. I popped into email and Bloglines occasionally while we were in Oregon, but didn't have nearly enough time to even pretend to stay caught up so, if you haven't seen or heard from me lately, I'm trying to get caught up!

While we were gone, Miss Mollie Dog stayed at the doggie hotel (boarded at the vet's) and the kittens stayed home with a friend checking in on them daily. Mollie had the entire vet staff wrapped around her little paw by the time we got back, so she didn't suffer a bit. The cats on the other hand have developed some abandonment issues. You know how cat hair sticks all over clothing? It turns out that if the situation is dire enough, Kitty Man hair will stick to my clothing with the cat still attached. Kitty Chai has been sticking pretty close too, but more within the context of a "normal cat" (I term I use very loosely). She has also made a couple of tries to escape out the front door to register her disapproval.

The kids had a fabulous time and did amazingly well in the car for a total of six days (2000 miles each way) and had a blast while we were there. However, we are now being repaid for their good behavior. Both kids have been unusually crazy since we got home. I completely understand that they are decompressing and readjusting to being home after a HUGE (but fun) upheaval, but man, Mama's tired and cranky and had just about had it!

My two little brats...which is wurst???

All right, I got the puns out of my system...I promise! On Friday night we went to the World's Largest Bratfest for supper. They had Johnsonville Brats, Boca Brats (vegetarian) and Hot Dogs, along with a well-equipped condiment bar, soft drinks, beer (of course), and ice cream. We also got to see the world's largest grill (65' x 6', details here), pulled by a semi big-rig, much to Bug's delight. They also had a carnival, live music, and other craziness. All-in-all a lot of fun. If we weren't trying to get ready to leave for Oregon tomorrow, we probably could have spent a nice evening there listening to music. As it was, we ate supper, wandered around a bit, the kids went on a couple of rides, and then we packed it in and went home.

Today is running around like crazy trying to get everything packed and ready. We are looking forward (??) to three days of driving before getting to Grandma and Grandpa's house. But once we get to Oregon, we should have a good time visiting with Grandma and Grandpa and Great-Grandma W and having some fun at the zoo and the coast!

Random, random, and more random

So, I have once again gotten behind and need to catch up...also, KnottyKitty tagged me, so I have a meme to do to. Since there is little hope of coming up with anything coherent in catching up, it is just as well that the meme is a random things one! At least we'll have a theme going!

Last Thursday, we got motivated to go out the door to Farmer's market a bit early, so we took the opportunity for a long detour and went to see the field that we saw burning the week before. Nothing but beautiful pale green new grasses as far as the eye can see! Okay, the kids weren't nearly as impressed as I was...oh well. Then on the way back, we drove through "Keys Park" and saw the carnival set up for Fitchburg days. Thus, once we got to Farmer's Market, Bug had to tell everyone he saw that Keys park had become a carnival. Now that's exciting stuff!

Since we have been watching "Electric Company" videos and Burger King's kid's meals have had Spiderman toys, Bug has become just a little obsessed with Spiderman (note that "just a little" means flinging webs at everyone 24/7 and centering every conversation around Spiderman). So we decided to rent the first of the Spiderman movies. We watched it twice. If we hadn't had to return in to the video store, we would probably have seen it every single day since.

In addition to Spiderman, Bug's current obsessions are Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars. He often mixes them together. When Spiderman was fighting the Green Goblin near the end of the Spiderman movie, Bug was feeling nervous about it and decided he was a Cylon and was "dunning" the Green Goblin with his "dunners" to help Spiderman ("Dunners" are guns that go "dun, dun, dun, dun"). Then, after reading one of Uncle J's vintage Star Wars books at bedtime last night, this morning he was chasing Ewoks around and shooting spider webs at them.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a barefooted Bean on my lap and we started playing "This Little Piggy," so for a while her feet would say "oak, oak, oak" to me. Then she decided that they weren't piggies, but cows, so now they say "mow, mow, mow" (rhymes with "ow," not what you do to the lawn). She also thinks it is an absolute hoot to try and put her cows up on the table while we are eating. We are discouraging it, but it's still pretty cute when they say "mow, mow, mow"

On Saturday, the four of us made a short road trip up to Susan's Fiber Shop so that I could spend my gift certificate that KittyDaddy got me for our anniversary and Mother's day. The kids enjoyed looking at the sheep and lambs and I got to wander and look at pretty fluff. What came home with me included a one-pound cone of pale green Jagger Spun laceweight

that will become a "Frost Flowers and Leaves" from A Gathering of Lace. I also got 100g of mystery sock yarn. I saw it and it reminded me of someone, so it will be gifted once it becomes a pair of socks. There will be pictures after the gift is received, just in case the recipient reads my blog. I also got one Fiber Trends pattern for adult and child sized felted ballerina slippers that I have been planning to get. On the spinning front, I got myself a Turkish Spindle.


I am completely taken by spinning skinny singles and have discovered that I can't do Andean plying to make a 2-ply yarn without completely cutting off the circulation to my hand. I had enough trouble doing it with thicker yarn. With a Turkish spindle, the spun single get wrapped into a center pull ball. Once the single is spun, the center shaft slides out the bottom and the two cross pieces slide apart, leaving the center pull ball, which (in theory), I should be able to do two-ply by joining the ends. I also got three little bags of fibers (about an ounce of each) to fill out the gift certificate: viscose (rayon), a merino/rayon blend, and bunny (angora, I think). The yarn on the Turkish spindle is the merino/rayon. I have the alpaca from the previous SFS trip on my other spindle.

In less than a week we are leaving for our vacation. We are driving to Oregon (the state, not the town in Wisconsin) starting next Sunday (it will be a three-day drive). So the kids and I have been running around trying to get ready. Two weeks ago, we got a two-screen portable DVD player to keep the kids quiet entertain the kids and in yesterday's paper, it was on sale for $50 cheaper! Fortunately, they refunded that amount most graciously! Of course, every day since we got the player, Bug has been asking if it is our trip day. We are all looking forward to visiting with Grandma and Grandpa and Great-Grandma 'Dell, as well as seeing the coast (and the aquarium at Newport) and the Oregon Zoo. Hopefully, I will also find some blogging time so I don't have to do a HUGE catch-up after the trip! I am also looking forward to some serious knitting time on the road...yay!

I have also discovered that I can't call my parents from the Taco Bell parking lot anymore...at least not before I eat. When we went in to order, the only thing I could come up with is "Nachos Supreme, no sour cream, Bean Burrito, Fresco style, Fiesta Potatoes, and two senior drinks." I had to slap myself around a little before I could come up with the right order (two kids meals, both with two tacos and a number three with softshells). I have also permanently confused the Banfield (in Portland), with the Beltline (in Madison). I inevitably get them reversed and then can't think of the other name to save my life. My brain cells have apparently marinated in pregnancy hormones long enough.

The meme I was tagged for requires eight random facts about me, so here we go...

1. Things that happened the year I was born: the moon walk, Woodstock, and the premiere of Sesame Street. Obviously a good year.
2. While the only language I have ever been fluent in is English (well, most days), I also know some French (two years in high school), German (four semesters as an undergrad), American Sign Language (one semester in summer school during college, plus a teensy bit of review in a Signing with Baby class when Bug was tiny), a tiny bit of Spanish from Sesame Street and Dora, and Chinese (four semesters in grad school). I really enjoy learning languages, but wish I was better at it!
3. I love music and play piano (not nearly often enough) and played clarinet and saxophone in high school.
4. I hate hot weather. Although I start to get cabin fever if winter stays too long, I would take 6' snow drifts over 90°F and humid without even having to think about it. Heck, I would even take it over 80°F and humid, though I might try to negotiate down to 5' snowdrifts. Of course, my first choice would be 60's during the day and 50's overnight and lots of green and flowers.
   
5. I love to read, especially mysteries. My favorite authors (that I have read most, if not all of their novels) include Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs. There are certainly others, but I can't think of them while a four-year-old is putting his feet in my face and asking me to smell them.
6. My tastes in TV tend to run along the same lines as my taste in fiction. Before we got rid of cable last fall, I enjoyed watching CSI (the original and sometimes NY, but NOT Miami), NCIS, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and House, M.D.
7. I find it difficult to think of things to put in a list when a four-year-old is trying to get me to smell his feet.
8. I have a tendency to march to my own drummer and do things the way I want, regardless of how I'm "supposed" to do them. This will become clearer in a moment.

Now I'm supposed to tag eight people, but I am going to fudge a bit and do it in three categories (see #8 above).

• People I am tagging: my baby brother and his wife (they share a blog, but I think they each need to post a list) and Nothing But Hnat (please include a gratuitous Ni pic, please!!)
• People I would tag if they had a blog: Namma and my (formerly Iowan) friend Cherie.
• People I am conditionally tagging (consider yourself tagged unless you have done this meme or a similar one...I can't remember what I ate for breakfast, much less what I have read where): Ms. K and Marianne
• People I was going to tag, but went to their blog and discovered that they tagged me first (crud, I really gotta get caught up with bloglines and dude, I'm only doing this once, so this one's for you, too, KnittyMama): KnittyMama...everyone else can go and read her list and pretend I was the one who tagged her ;o)
  

And here are the faithfully reproduced rules:

Rules:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.

3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Oh Namma...

I talked to my parents on the phone today and they were (surprise, surprise) getting ready to go to Taco Bell for lunch. As an aside, this is not a huge surprise as Taco Bell is a VERY regular lunch spot for my parents. We joke about how TB will go out of business if they skip a couple of days. They always order the same thing, so when the employees see them coming, they put in the order so it is waiting for them when Dad walks up to order. His comeback is to have the correct change ready to hand to them when he walks up. Clearly, some of my oddities are genetic...at least I come by it honestly.

Anyhoo, when they said they were going to Taco Bell, Bean was on my lap so I told them that her two favorite places right now were Burger King and Taco Bell and she obliged me by saying both for grandma and grandpa. We all chuckled over her cute pronunciations and that was about the end of the conversation. So after I got off the phone, Bug perked right up and asked if we were going to Taco Bell for lunch. I tried to explain that grandma and grandpa were going and not us, but then he wanted to go and meet them for lunch. I told him 2000 miles was a bit much for just lunch, but that we could go to Taco Bell with grandma and grandpa in a couple of weeks when we visit. By now, Bean is piping up with "Go Taco Beh-yo" so I finally gave into the inevitable, embraced the rainy day and we all went out for lunch.

When we got out to the van, Bean started prancing around in the rain like a little colt. She was having such a good time, that I promised her some rainy play time after lunch. So after lunch the kids ran around in the rain and jumped in puddles. Not surprisingly, Bean managed to find the one dinky mud puddle in the whole paved area. However, they had a blast and got thoroughly soaked and definitely didn't want to come inside again, but Mama was starting to get thoroughly chilled. Even Little Brother thought it looked like a good time and was dancing and kicking (or maybe that was just the Pepsi Mama had for lunch...). So they finally came in looking like this:


Mama stripped them both to their birthday suits in the front hall and sent them up to the bathtub and dumped the clothes in the washing machine. Let me tell you, that water was pretty nasty by the time they came out! But they were back to clean and dry in no time! Bean sure took a good nap...guess who is going to be up partying all night tonight...

Catching up...

I have discovered a definite drawback to marvelous spring weather...the kids want to be outside 24/7 and, even though I have a laptop and wireless network, it's too bright to see the screen without getting a whopping headache! Eventually, I will be able to send them out to do their thing and stay inside to do important stuff like blogging ;o), but Bean tends to wander off for now. In addition, she has mastered the skills of letting herself out the front door and the sliding glass door and doesn't quite understand the concept of "You can't go outside without Mommy." She has also developed a keen fashion sense and enjoys picking her own wardrobe:

We had absolutely gorgeous spring weather during the end of last week through Saturday. Warm and sunny during the day, but cool breezes in the shade and nice cool nights. The kids and I spent a lot of time at the parks or in the backyard. After our weekly Friday library trip, we took a blanket out on the grass in the back and read our books under a tree. Really, a very lovely way to spend a Friday afternoon. Although the computer doesn't do well in the backyard, it is a nice place to sit on the deck with some knitting, so I am trucking along on my entrelac purse-to-be. Between backyard doses and Battlestar Galactica episodes in the evening (courtesy of Blockbuster online), I should have a new purse before the old one completely falls apart. When we go to the park, I have my sock in my purse, so I am making great headway on it too. The pair of sock before this one took about six months without going to the park over the winter months! On this pair, I am about an inch from turning the heel on the first sock! Sure, I know a half of a sock in a month is not blazing fast, but I never work on my purse sock at home.

On Saturday, we walked over to the neighborhood meat market to pick up what we needed for burgers and 'dogs for a Mother's day picnic cookout. After we got home, we all played out in the yard for a while. We dug out our yard toys...badminton racquets, baseball gloves, Frisbees, jump ropes, etc. and had a blast. Bean is clearly destined for the Major Leagues:

That is, if she ever gets to be as big as the glove! Bug is starting to pull together the skills for throwing a Frisbee and he has a killer arm, which is usually employed for throwing things at his sister (most likely at her head), so we had a lot of fun.

Since it started raining buckets in the wee hours of Sunday morning, we ended up changing our cookout to a cook-in. We used the stove top griddle/grill and everything was pretty tasty, but not nearly as good as over charcoal. I did get a chance to go hang at the coffee shop and knit for a while ALL BY MYSELF, so not a bad Mother's Day, in spite of the weather.

Yesterday, we got a sneak peek of summer. It was in the upper 80's and didn't cool down as quickly last night. Today is gray and rainy and it looks like we will be having more spring later in the week! I think we will take advantage of the cool and rainy to have an indoor day. Bean is drawing gotes (ghosts) with crayons and Bug is up to his usual goofiness. I am catching up on the computer. I am also planning to work on folding laundry (the never-ending chore) and maybe spin a little of my alpaca roving.