Hmm... Don't think I have put this picture up...

Sorry, all - I have had a wonderful long weekend and somehow managed to run down the batteries on both digital cameras, so you are being treated to a Willow and Jo self-portrait from Mother's Day.

I have been keeping up with my July Jamboree - although I have to say that right off the bat I am having trouble with the 'not doing the same thing two days in a row' rule. I have made an executive decision - riding the stationary bike and cycling outside are *not* the same thing. Semantics, I suppose - but riding the stationary bike is something I can always do at home when there are so many other things to do. I have been doing my cycling today in 10 minutes increments as I have been washing the mountains of laundry we accumulate during the week.

Tara - there has been a bit of a delay in the armwarmers. The youngest person in this house knocked a cup of milk into my knitting bag. Suffice to say, it was a good thing for all involved that I was not home when this happened and my second-in-command managed to hang the bag up to dry before I had a shit fit.

July Jamboree

Half way through the year. Did anyone think of that today? That 2009 is half over? Blows my mind.

I'm finding it hard to stay on a schedule right now. Andrew has a new job, Willow is in summer camp, I seem to be working all sorts of hours (and as assinine as it might seem to some, usually because I really like what I was doing and didn't want to stop). My house is in shambles now that my kept man is no longer kept. One of Willow's playmates and her mother stopped by while I was exercising tonight and my first thought when Andrew told me this was, "Ugh... did they see inside the house?" And I just get this feeling that the month is going to fly by.

I've decided to chart my exercise for July - see the July Jamboree section to the right? Exercise, to me at the moment, oddly slows me down. Not physically - obviously I am there to work muscles and bring up my heart rate - but it slows my head down. I stop thinking a million miles a minute about what I need to do next and sometimes more pressingly, all the things I didn't do (ahem - laundry on the loveseat that was folded two nights ago). I am striving for 30 minutes a day, and to not do the exact same exercise two days in a row (and trust me, the latter will be more difficult - I am definitely a creature of habit).

Now, as for the messy house... it's a good thing I have a long weekend ahead of me.

Progress

Tara, armwarmer the first is almost done:



Modelled by Tori, daughter of my friend, Michelle. Yeah, I could have modeled it, but my rounded short forelimbs wouldn't have done it justice.

The silly thing is, working on dpns, it took me forever to get the first 30 rows or so done (including the knuckle portion, the thumb opening and then rejoining into a tube), but once I switched to the two circular needles (Friday afternoon) the rest breezed by. I hope to have both finished by this coming weekend and then I will pop them in the mail.

I will leave you with some latte love:

We have tomatoes!

There was a lot of squealing going on at Chez Jo yesterday. It started in the morning when I saw this through the sunroom window:



We have tomatoes! This is my Tumbling Tom tomato plant that I was worried was going to die because the leave changed from a young healthy lime-green colour to grey-green. It doesn't seem to have affected the plants fruit-producing ability. Andrew wonders if this is the plant's natural state because while looking a sickly grey-green, the leaves are healthy.

Here's a close up of one of the tomatoes:



Woo-hoo!

I wasn't able to go out and take pictures until much later in the afternoon, and while checking out my other plants, I saw this and screamed:



See it? Here's a close up:



It's a baby cucumber! I've never tried growing cucumbers before, and I am so chuffed that they are growing so well! (And that the recent rains hadn't washed everything away!)

700

Who would have guessed? I just noticed when I logged in that this is my 700th post.

Tara, I began working on your armwarmers:



Unfortunately, I had to rip them out because they were just too wide. I knit until they were long enough for me to stick my hand in, and the 2X2 ribbing wasn't even stretched. The pattern said to use size 5 needles and that gauge wasn't important because these were meant to be stretchy - but these could have fit some ham-fisted individual. So, I will try again tonight with size 3 needles - I think size 4 needles would still be too big.

Back to the drawing board...

Tara, Your Yarn Arrived: An Unintential YPF

My friend Tara and I are trading skillsets - in return for her making Willow some adorable clothes, I will be knitting her some armwarmers. After much viewing of green yarn, she chose Claudia Handpaints Sport in the Jungle colourway:



And a close up:



Very lovely!

Since the yarn is variegated, I think I am going to use a simple pattern to show off the pretty greens. I can't wait to start!

Sharkgirl and Tandem Cycling

Yeah... puzzle that one out.

Look in Willow's mouth:



Look closer:



Now is the title starting to make sense? My child has two rows of teeth - the dentist assures me that it isn't permanent. She will be seven soon, and I know my friends who have children around the same age have lost teeth already, but Willow is being as stubborn as her mother was about this. I don't think I lost my first tooth until second grade. I remember my teachers having a list on the board of everyone who had lost teeth and how many teeth and my name was never up there. In fact, I was still losing teeth in junior high school - I am missing my canine teeth in my eighth grade school picture.

Um, yeah - enough of my issues...

The dentist says not even to worry about the two new teeth being placed behind - that as soon as the old teeth come out her tongue will push the new teeth into place. It just looks odd for now. Mom and Dad, I am sure I will be bringing a gap-toothed beauty with me this summer. Her two lower teeth and upper teeth are all quite loose and I have a sneaky suspicion she is going to loose them all at the same time.

So, where does the tandem cycling fit in? Andrew and I love cycling - it is something we used to to all the time when we lived in Boulder, Colorado. When we lived in Japan we didn't drive, so it was bicycles and trains everywhere as well. We have been trying to get Willow to ride her bike without training wheels with limited success (she is okay as long as she hasn't figured out you have let go of the bike and she is on her own...) We had seen people here in town riding these tandem bicycles for adults and children, and found out the child's part is just an attachment to the adult's bike:



It is so much fun! Willow was quite apprehensive the first time. "Daddy, slow down, Daddy, not so fast!" By the time they had gone around the block once it had become, "Daddy, again! Let's go again! I like speed bumps!" The bike does have limitations - you have to be careful with turns (similar to how a limo makes wide turns because of the length) but we are very happy with it. Not only do we all get to cycle together, but we have peace of mind that she is actually with us and not weaving away into traffic. We have a bike hitch for the car, and we are trying to find a local place to take a trip to go cycling for the day. I know there are bike paths down in Rehoboth Beach and up in Gettysburg - does anyone have any other neat ideas?

Shrimp on the Barbie

I think this has become my new favourite summer food... It's so simple and quick! The recipe I use was adapted from one I found on Allrecipes.com.

1.5 pounds raw shrimp
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp kosher salt
paprika (to taste)
white pepper (to taste)
bamboo skewers

Crush garlic and salt together, add in olive oil and spices to make a greasy paste (trust me, it is a lot more appetizing than it looks). Rinse shrimp and put in gallon ziploc bag. Scrape in paste, and moosh all over shrimp, seal bag and toss in refrigerator for a few hours. Start soaking the bamboo skewers at least 30 minutes before you plan to grill or they will catch on fire.

Take the shrimp out of the refrigerator and start to thread onto the skewers. Hold the shrimp in a backward 'C' shape and pierce it through the broadest part and the tail. My skewers are about 7" long and I can get 5 on each. Once the grill is hot, it will only take about 3 minutes on each side to cook them. I love how shrimp have a built-in doneness indicator - when they are raw they are weirdly translucent grey - when done, opaque and pinky-white. Enjoy!

I took some pictures of the garden while we were waiting for the grill to heat up. Here is my Sweet Basil:



That big leaf in the front is about the size of my palm. Here is the Lime Basil:



I foresee pesto on our dinner menu this week. Another one of my favourite summer meals. I make a really quick and simplified pesto - 4 cups basil leaves, 1/2 cup zesty fat free Kraft Italian dressing, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. I put it in a container and liquefy it with my hand blender. You could probably add other stuff to this to zing it up, but I have to deal with a 6-year-old's palate.

Cherry tomatoes planted in the ground:



Cherry tomatoes growing in the basket:



The plant still isn't healthily green, but it is producing lots of fruit.

My eggplant has lots of flowers on it:



As does my acorn squash:



And look what I found hanging out in my cucumber plant:



I told you there was knitting going on. I finished this sock except for grafting the toe while catching a custom True Blood marathon on Demand (watching all the episodes I wanted to see again). These socks are definitely for me - no more sweet-talking me into giving them to someone else!

Gotta go - the new season of True Blood starts in 4 minutes!

Sigh...

It's been a louse-y couple of days.

Yeah, I spelled that correctly.

Help...

A Rose By Any Other Name

On Sunday we met Asami, Gara, and their boys at Buckley's Tavern Pajama Brunch - brunch is half price if you wear your jammies - and it was totally worth it to have Andrew go out in public in his Superman jammies. No pictures, however - I may have got him outside in the jammies, but he drew the line at the picture taking.

After brunch we headed out to the Brandywine Zoo and Josephine Gardens, where I found some beautiful roses. Unfortunately, with all of the rain we had last week, many of the roses were rotting on their stems, but I did find these ones relatively unscathed:







And as for knitting... I started something new last night... and it isn't a sock!

Gentle Prodding

My life has not been exciting of late. I have some big deadlines at work, the weather has been crappy, and I have been in a reading mood rather than a knitting mood... all things that contribute to a quiet blog.

Before I went to bed last night I checked my mail one last time and saw this missive from my Dad:

dear jo

i look at your blog everyday this week and i have memorized your latest post. get with the program

love dad

Okay, you know it's bad when your Dad feels the need to point out your paltry blogging...

Here, I'll try to distract you with some pictures from the garden!



Look what I have! As happy as I am to see the little tomatoes, I am a bit worried for the plant itself:



It's in the middle of our yard, it's getting full sun, and after the 4 days of rain we had this week, it's plenty hydrated, but it's turning yellow in spots and some branches are falling off. Does anyone know any tomato first aid?

My spaghetti squash has a bloom on it:



Weeds, too, apparently. That's what happens when it rains for nearly a week and we can't get out and pull things.

This is a cool one - I had to stand very still to get this picture:



It was cooler when I thought I was taking a picture of a bee... until Andrew pointed out this was a yellowjacket, not a honeybee.

And lastly, a late bloomer from my FIL's garden:



As I mentioned above, I have been in a reading mood lately - and in no particular order, here is what I have read in the last week or so:

* Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead
* A Touch Of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp
* Night Huntress by Yasmine Galenorn
* Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
* The Devil's Due by Jenna Black

and last night I started reading:

* Demon Mistress by Yasmine Galenorn

And before anyone gets overly concerned about the titles, they are all urban fantasy - my preferred form of literary escapism. And trust me, I need a lot of escapism right now.

Blue Rocks Fireworks

or, more fun with the new camera. Tara asked me what kind of camera it is. Nothing terribly fancy - it's an Olympus FE-360 and it is a few steps up from my Nikon Coolpix. I know I could read through the manual (yawn...) but I much prefer, as with many other aspects of my life, to learn by just playing around with something.

Last night we went to the Wilmington Blue Rocks game versus the Myrtle Beach Pelicans with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. We joked that it was a good thing we brought the babysitter along - Willow absolutely adores her Uncle Stewart and she didn't want anything to do with us - she only wanted to play with Stewart. It was a pretty exciting game, too - the first inning lasted over 40 minutes and eleven runs were scored. In the end our home team won 8-6. It was a beautiful night for a game, too - it wasn't hot or humid, the sun set behind us so we didn't have the sun in our eyes, and best of all - I didn't get hit with a ball! (Trust me, as a person who was hit by a foul ball at at MLB game, any time you get out unscathed is a victory!)

We chose to go to this particular game because it was Fireworks Night! We don't live close to the stadium, but the fireworks are usually so loud and powerful that we can hear and feel them at our house (sometimes even see them as well in the distance). My camera has a fireworks setting and I was eager to use it. I have to say, though - in the end it was a lot more difficult than I was expecting. The camera told me it uses a slower shutter speed for this so I knew it wasn't going to be as easy as point and shoot and I would have to time these carefully.

You don't even want to know how many pictures I took to get a handful of half-decent ones...















And just to prove that all this playing and using special settings on the camera can mean absolutely nothing if the shot is right - with the same settings I turned to my left and snapped a shot of Willow:



Okay... keep playing.

Blame It On Memorial Day

It seems like I have been mixed up all week.



I started a new pair of socks! Hopefully these ones will be for me - they haven't told me otherwise yet. It's a variation on my stand by Ann Budd sock pattern done in 2 X 2 rib. The yarn is the Barefoot Spinner (who doesn't have a website) superwash sock yarn I bought at MDSW.

A weird thought about superwash - more than once while I was at MDSW I overheard people say they were apprehensive about buying superwash wool because they were worried it might felt. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that precisely what superwash wool is *not* supposed to do?

More "I Love My New Camera" Shots

And perhaps my favourite of the bunch:



Unfortunately, I missed most of the bloom time in my father-in-law's garden this year. The recent hot spell hasn't helped much, either - but I did manage to snap these pretties while during our cook-out yesterday.

Why, yes -

I am alive - thank you for asking.

Sorry - I have been incredibly busy at work. My lucky bum co-worker was whisked off on a surprise Caribbean cruise for her 50th birthday and I had to cover for her while she was away. Hint, hint - husbands...

I did manage to finish both pairs of socks I had been working on by Saturday night. Here are the Mandy socks:



They are too big for me, so I will be gifting them to someone, as soon as I make sure I have her mailing address (Ahem, Amy B. Cats).

Here are the Ampersand socks:



I love these socks, but I will be giving these to someone as well. They are beautiful, they fit - but I know someone who will really appreciate them. More on that later.

In the meantime, I discovered a cool feature on my new camera - super macro! Look what it does for the Ampersand socks:



Everyone, now - "Oooh..."

And my basil (which I started from seed, thank you very much) that desperately needs transplanting outside:



And my Christmas cactus, which not only have I managed to not kill, is sprouting new leaves:



I have a bad track record with houseplants...

Yay me!