Guess who's coming for dinner?

Half of a hormone-free, grass fed cow! The Mastons have beef, lamb and now even pork available! We're picking up half a cow tomorrow morning. I found them through the Farm Bureau's magazine. I checked out the PickTnproducts.org to see when the Harris' would have their organic blueberries available and noticed the site listed meat too. A few emails later and we had a check in the mail for a deposit on "our" cattle. They give a discount to homeschoolers and law enforcement/fire etc. Give Paulette a call and tell her I sent you! Next up is a sheep in the fall. Wonder if I can spin their fleece? Tomorrow i hope to remember to ask for a few bones for the dogs.

The weekend of insane activity and indulged teenagers

William's Kendo team practice in Nashville brought about several other activities in the interest of saving fuel. First, here are some photos of William at practice and the obligatory beer and food that follows. For better photos go here. Thanks to Lisa for letting us stay with her. We drove William to the middle of freaking no where so he could stay over night with a homeschool buddy. Returned to Nashville for a brief break before going on a Starbucks mystery shop and pestering Ginger for directions to iD camp check-in. Thank heavens for the new GPS! We got Max checked in to camp where upon he instantly dismissed me and I was free to dash over and meet Lisa & Lynette to go to the CMA Fest. Lisa sweetly obtained a ticket for me! After having massive cell phone problems complete with leaving some bizarre message that alarmed my brother, parents and wife, I finally met up with Lynette and got to the stadium. Great performers, though Billy Ray must learn to shut up. Picked up William the next day and headed home. Beat for the next two days. Today is the first day I could even put 2 thoughts together, unfortunately those thoughts were "vacuum" and "mop". UGH!

the next summer knit top

Technically I should have done Lotus Blossom first, but I just wasn't feeling it. After knocking Lelah out in 4 days, I instantly swatched for lotus blossom and got gauge! I planned to alter the top (don't I always), but followed the directions for the size large. After one entire repeat it was obvious that everyone was right, this pattern runs outrageously large. I should have swatched a lace section, no wait, I think I did! After some lamenting and gnashing of teeth, I frogged the effer and headed off to Nashville for the LAST SEUSKF team practice. Foolishly thinking I'd have 5 hours to knit. Of course Arai-sensei's wife conned me into timing ji geiko, Masumi needed ice packs, somebody else needed athletic tape and it was "mom to the rescue". The knitting whined. I snuck off and got a bit done later. After 2 repeats I can see I am still going to have to alter this pattern so basically I am lifting the lace pattern and changing everything else. In hindsight, I wish I had purchased Soie Bamboo for this top. The Sonata is stiff and will not have the drape or weight I had wished for, but the cost is right. Hopefully I can beat the heck out of it in the washing machine with a pair of jeans and soften it up.

new FO, Lelah, summer top

right out of the shower, no air conditioning, no makeup, no more excuses. quick and easy, I think I knit this up in about 4 days!

Cool teenaged boy...

...with a new hair(against his will), straight (still braced teeth) and new glasses. Life is good!

Health Talk producer comes to visit

Carolynn Delaney came and shot video with the help of a local camera crew. I think the idea is to make several videos for Health Talk, each focusing on a different aspect of Dementia (diagnosis, living, plans for the future?) She was a joy to work with! I would welcome her back any time! Health Talk is an amazing place with personal stories, professional information and "ask the doctor" format all in one place. I did not take many photos as all, but here are a few.

How to build a patio without really trying

1. Have a friend decide to rip out her walkways
2. have the same friend offer to let you have the bricks if you remove them
3. get your teenaged sons to help you dig them up and load them in the truck (three times)
4. Have your hard working teenaged son clean the bricks and stack then neatly
5. Have your slacker teen marginally clean and horribly stack the remainder of the bricks
6. con a good friend to come "help" (since he's already built his own patio)
7. Get busy cooking, watching his kid brother etc...have everyone else do whatever he says
8. Go out occasionally to move a few dozen bricks.
   
9. Provide great barbeque and drinks and swimming compliments of #1&2
   

Beating Lelah into submission

I have been swatching for a summer top for weeks. Honestly, I could have knit an entire garment in this time! I'm not always one to swatch, but there is this wicked frugal streak in me and it's showing its determination to find a use for some hand me down Misti Cotton yarn. Lynsey made a keyhole top out of it and had almost 3 full hanks left. We swapped (I gifted her the BS Nature's spectrum yarn I made a cardi out of, handpainted, 100% wool, very neat) and this yarn has been haunting me ever since. I have swatched it on various needles for no less than three different patterns. Beginning with Lotus Blossom (it's way to heavy) then Isabella (the stitch gauge/row gauge threw the pattern off horribly no matter what needles I tried) and then settling on Lelah borrowing these major modifications for my middle-aged lump body. I CO twice, ultimately I had to frog and CO a third time. That's the charm. Now I can report that I CO with a size 10 using my gauge swatch to determine the # of stitches, as the pattern was seriously off. When I followed the pattern for the size large, i ended up with a bottom measurement of 50"! YIPES! I'm decreasing needle sizes to create some shaping. This needs to go from a 40" hip to a 32" under bust. So I'm dropping from a 10 to an 8 then to a 6. The plan is for this to use up the Misti Cotton and some Shine worsted left overs. I am serious about this frugal knitting stuff. Then I will reward myself with Elann Sonata for Lotus Blossom.