Color first, no?

Look at the surprise this week at work…

This was a “rescue” and after a year or so it has flowered. Must like the window it sits in… but on the day it flowered, I put it right in the middle of my office so I could see it from my desk! The reproductive parts look so interesting!

Just behind my monitors is this somewhat phallic plant, I always forget what it is called…

And in front of my monitors I have a little help…

actual knitting

Vanille (ravelry link)

That second photo is wicked fuzzy… sorry! I am almost done w/ the body, and then on to the sleeves.

mushroom madness continues

Look what DH brought home from a day in the woods…

Two more big Phaeolus! I might over-dye the yarn I did the other day. He made some comment that I should dry them so they don’t mold, and to not dissuade him from getting me more, I’ve chopped it up and spread it out on a cookie sheet that I put in my car.

I have some ideas about collecting enough of this and that mushroom and doing a real experiment.

But before that I am thinking to overdye some grey wool with koolaid for Norma’s red scarf project… pics when I have them.

Skype!

I skyped this morning with a young woman in Australia. What a blast! She’s from Barcelona and misses speaking in Spanish, and I want to practice because I forget so much. It worked really well (once I figured out how to get my microphone switched to the webcam)… some Spanish, some English, some Spanglish. I found her in Ravelry, in a Spanish speaking knitter’s group. We’ll do it again, maybe next weekend.

Just finished a quick project, for the soon to come baby of the woman who used to have my job. She always makes me think of sunshine, and she’s in Arizona…

There’s a few details on my Ravelry project page.

Four of us went to Portland last weekend (a bit of spinning fiber may have followed me home). And we had a great lunch at Silly’s. Fun place and a great wrap (O-M-G, so much bacon…). They even have an outside “garden” dining area, which is where we sat.

While I was in Portland (in DH’s mom-mobile), DH used my car. He lost the keys while out for a couple hours with the dogs looking for fungi. He went back and looked for two hours. And then we went back the next day and looked for another two hours. No luck (I have my own set, and we still have the “valet” key)… So, if you come across some Subaru keys in the woods behind the airport in Augusta, let me know! I doubt anybody ventures into the places he was… hilly, ravines, no trails, up and down… I was exhausted!

We had “help”

Wet Gracie from the creek… Zuzu, who has since gotten a trim.

So last week we had this “quick” meeting to discuss the FY 12-13 budget for info tech stuff. It lasted three hours. We have another tomorrow. Nobody will be able to speak unless they display their appropriate Three Hour Tour Meeting persona.

And yes, I’m Gilligan…

Wigmore that is (though I do confess a fondness also for Hendrick’s)

Do you think I could find her “new” (March) cd in Augusta last night? NOPE! But I’ll get her somehow…

knitting

Oh yes, I guess I do do that… the orange sweater lingers. The sleeve was way wonky… I need advice from a knitting friend before continuing.

So, today, during an all day GIS conference, I did a bit on yet another pair of Maine Morning Mitts. They are clearly my “go-to” mindless small project, especially for small amounts of friendz blendz!

OH!

Look what I got from Mel this past weekend (raffle winnings from some time ago),

Way incredibly lovely, eh? Now I just need to get all the fiber off the bobbins and start to work on this… there is about 2 pounds here!

and ooooh!

There’s a hummingbird right outside the window this evening at the bee balm!

We went this past weekend to the memorial service in PA for my father-in-law. It was a lovely service outside under large, spreading trees at Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust. He died late on Mother’s Day, just six months after his wife of 50 some years (she died on Thanksgiving). My husband gave a lovely tribute, in which he talked about life lessons learned from his dad, who he worked with for several years as a surveyor. And then his brother gave a short tribute that made me cry and cry.

They’re cleaning out the house, you know? And found one of those little inspirational books that MIL had, with a page about love or family (I forget) marked off with a day calendar page from 2006, again with some pertinent quote. And FIL wrote, in his scratchy surveyor’s handwriting, a note about how he fell in love the day he met her.

October 30, 1929-May 9, 2010.

What was I taking pictures of?

the backside of the piper

Who, by the way, is wearing County Mayo (an IRISH plaid…). Especially after BIL’s tribute, his piping was haunting and bittersweet.

the family

missing only the youngest BIL and a niece

There are 8 kids, all with partners or spouses except the missing one, and the three girls and DH with kids (including two half siblings to one of the BIL’s, who were raised by my SIL… I just call them all family). It was great to see them all, and especially to meet the littlest one who lives in Colorado.

After the memorial there was a party at the house, where they all grew up. Neighbors of 30 and 50 years and long time friends showed up. We didn’t get to bed until midnight. Even though it was a sad occasion, it was great to see everybody and spend time with them.

the drive

I drove a bit, DH drove more, while I slept in the back of the minivan with the doggies. At one point stuff was hitting the windshield. I just thought it was agricultural duff. But, no, it was agricultural stock… bees.

I rolled down the window to get a better photo and DH said “No! No!” (if you embiggen you can see bees hanging on the backside of the truck)

back to work

and the blue screen of death at 11:30. Actually the black and blue screens of death since I have two monitors. Neither one had any words, just plain color. They want to get me a new machine (this one was new last October). Frustrating since I spent days last week installing some software (old software, but new to the machine). At least now I know where it lives (The people who make it say they don’t know where we would have put it. The person in whose world, an Oracle database, it is supposed to lives said it wasn’t there. The person in the middle, a database server, said it wasn’t there… but I got him to let me remote into his world and we did find it). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what was on my machine and needs to go back on before I can do what I’m supposed to do. yadayadayada…

would it be better if it was a pink screen?

Personally, I think so, given that blue is generally not my favorite color…

vote!

Did you? I did, but didn’t get a sticker! waaaaa!!!!! I figured my boss might not believe me, and sure enough, when I got back and said they didn’t have any stickers she said “I don’t believe you really went“. She was kidding…

knitting

As usual, no pictures. Finished some mitts. And the back of a summer sweater… pics soon.

Sara I never post on my blog anymore won the snowmelt contest! (OK OK, to be fair, she is active in Ravelry). She guessed May 24, and, guess what? It was totally gone by then! There were a couple of minor wet spots that were raised a bit above the ground… these typically result from ice melting below them. But no ice… I figure it had finished melting that morning. A groundhog even appears to be living in that snowmelt area…

Since Sara works and lives in Augusta, it was easy to deliver her winnings on my way to a meeting (she lives on the east side and works on the west, I live on the west side and work on the east).

She seems happy with the circular needle holder and a couple of buttons. Or maybe it was the delivery of that frozen caffeinated beverage… It has been wicked hot here these past couple days (90’s and humid).

I did a bit of spinning over the weekend…

Something from Amy, not sure what color, burnt toffee maybe? I got this a few years back to use with the drop spindle. Which hasn’t been happening… so it’s now for the wheel. I’m not trying for anything special, just to get back in the groove… then I’ll move on to that alpaca I was working on months ago, or maybe that “I’m trying to spin thin” wool.