Happy Birthday to my First Born

How do you go from this:
To this:
In the blink of an eye?

This is our bestest girl, our sweetie, pickle, cutie, smartie. I could probably go on but my eyes are filling with tears of pride and joy. From the moment she entered our lives she has been the joy of our days and the light of our lives.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

(For those of you who wonder if this is the all-female-child-all-the-time blog, I promise to show more of the second born after all of this week's celebrations are over. He is also my pride and joy and is NOT chopped liver!) Thursday, Graduation!

Summer Has Arrived

Here are the reasons why I know that summer has arrived:
1. It is a Gallon jug of sunblock. Yes, a gallon. Note the neat pump on top. No more spilling sunblock all over the floor. (My floor was recently voted least likely to get sunburned.) This lovely jug of anti-skin-cancer juice was delivered on Friday and has already seen significant use.

2. Traffic is light. Yesterday morning I made it from 26th street to 81st street without having to stop for a single traffic light. This means that there was no traffic to impede my perfect 30 mph cruise. (The lights are timed for 30 mph.) This means that people have already started taking 3 and 4 day weekends. It does not bode well for today, however.

3. Tomorrow is a certain someone's birthday and that has meant, for the last 11 years, that it is summer.4. One of the adults in this household has been out almost every other weeknight since June began. (The identity of the adult changes.) This means that Retirement Party, End of Year Party, Awards ceremonies, Graduations and assorted other end-of-school-year celebrations are in full swing. Last night was Mike's night as he attended a function for a program that raises money for his school. Tonight is my night with our Senior Awards Ceremony. Please think cool thoughts. Our auditorium is NOT air conditioned.

5. Spring Regents are in full swing and I am getting considerable exercise running up and down the stairs to the Vault. I think of this as my pre-summer conditioning. The combination of the stairs and the schleping of the exams up the stairs (Because dragging a cart from one end of the building, to the center and back to the original end (one floor down) is just silly most of the time.) provides a pretty good workout.

6. A tomato is ripe.7. My morning glories are growing several inches each day and ... have already started flowering. Unfortunately, they are flowering at a time when I am not around to see them. Boo.
How do you know that summer has arrived? Tell me in the comments!

100th Post

Wow, has it been that many? To celebrate, we have cake! Made by Mike! (Want to see more of his creations? Click here.)O.k., so maybe the cake is not for the 100th blog. Maybe it is for the Female Child.

Who, with six of her friends, had a lovely tea party / birthday party at the T Salon. A lovely time was had by all but no more pictures will be forthcoming because I am only just getting the hang of using Picassa and I cannot figure out how to blur the other kids faces. I probably can't do it in Picassa but then looking at pictures of lovely young ladies with blurred faces is not so exciting anyway.

The actual birthday is next week and we will celebrate a bit more then.

I was pleased that the young ladies all had a good time chatting, drinking tea and partaking in a "proper tea" with scones with jam and clotted cream, tea sandwiches, fruit and sweets. Surprisingly, they ate almost all of the sandwiches which were a bit on the sophisticated side. The arm in the picture belongs to the owner who arrived just as we were doing the cake. She had all of the girls wish along to strengthen the birthday girl's wish. I thought that was very nice.

On the way home we spotted this:

Who knew New York City had tree snakes!

Anyone want this?

In our flurry of cleaning out and packing up, this was uncovered.

It was made for the Female Child and used for a while by the Male Child. They no longer want it. I did not make it. My sister does not want it. I am offering it up to anyone that does want it. The offer will remain valid for a few days until I can pack it up and donate it to the Teen Moms program at a local hospital. I will pay shipping to make sure this goes to a good home.

You will be returned to your regular blog later today with pictures from the Birthday Party. 

Before the Demolition

We are spending much of this weekend packing up in preparation for the renovations that will start on the 28th.
As promised, here are the before pictures with explanations. Wait six weeks or so for the after pictures.

This is the dining room / foyer area. The wall behind the ceiling fan (with the hummingbird painting) is the one that is coming down.








Here it is from it's other side, inside Female Child's room. It is the wall with the sunflower picture on it and it forms a small corridor in to her room. The new door will face where the sunflower picture is. The old door is out of the picture on the left. The large plant is named Brosin and is, I believe, a Dracinea. It was grown from a cutting from one that my mother-in-law had. There are two other Brosins in the apartment, one in the Male Child's room and one in my room. The other two were cut from this one. I suspect that this Brosin will get a massive "hair cut" after the construction. It hits the ceiling right now.

Female Child's windows. The shades were originally in our living room in a different apartment. They may be replaced. We are definately putting in curtains of some sort and a shelf will go above the windows so she can display her tchokes.









Female Child's closet. Note the door. The walls on either side of the door actually conceal the rest of the closet wherein lies the problem. The closet is almost unusable as is since we have to do some interesting feats of gymnastics to get anything on either side of the door. The walls are coming down and sliding doors are going up so that the entire closet will be usable.







Same thing in the Male Child's room. You can get a sense of the stupidity of the layout in this picture.

Both closets have to, obviously, be cleaned out as well as most of their belongings from the rest of the rooms. We have already moved the one of the big bookcases and the dresser out of the Female Child's room in to our room and placed a small bookcase from our room in to storage. We did not throw out the book case I mentioned the other day, we just relocated it in our room to make room for the dresser.

Unfortunately, cleaning and packing is taking precedence over biking today. Tomorrow, to no small extent, revolves around the Female Child's birthday Tea Party. She and Mike will decorate the cake later so look for pictures of it tomorrow.

I did it!

I made the conference and airline reservations and am going two day early to play with my friend. Why do I feel guilty?

And ... the most important question ... what knitting should I bring with me?

---

Mike met with the contractor last night and we have to kick in to high gear with getting Female Child's room totally emptied. I am going to check out a mini-storage facility this evening and we should be able to start schleping stuff over tomorrow. Last night I emptied a bookcase in my room that contained mostly fiber. We will be relegating that bookcase to the trash. It is old and will not handle being moved around too much. I know ... bookcases in the trash ... blasphemy. We have made the kids spend lots of time in the last few weeks thinning out their belongings and now I am in "pack it or throw it out" mode. No more sorting and thinking for me.

Once again, I am left with the most important question: what fiber stuff do I leave out and what do I pack? I have already folded the loom and put it in its bag. The main wheel will probably go in to the storage room while the journey wheel may stay but probably not. I think spindles will suffice and the charka will ease those "got to spin fast" cravings. I am trying to keep most of the yarn stash accessible in the apartment.

The construction will creep in to every room in the apartment except for the master bedroom. The contractors will need the kitchen sink for their water needs and will use my balcony for their tools and lunch. Both kids' rooms are having 2/3 of their closet walls demolished. (The closet door placement was badly designed with a single door in the center and solid walls stretching to either side making 2/3 of each closet almost inaccessible.) The dining area/foyer is losing a partial wall as is Female Child's room (same wall, other side).

The end result of all of this will be easier to use closets, a larger living area and a fresh paint job in most rooms. We will be in residence for the first three and a half weeks -- most of the job -- and then will probably take off on a camping trip if they really do stretch in to the fourth week as they are now predicting.

How to not cook

Regents "week" officially started today at 1:15 P.M. when thousands of 10th graders all over New York State took the Global History Regents Exam. I view it as the beginning of the end.

<<<>>>

I had written a well thought out piece about stress and the different testing seasons and how I started with this particular set of responsibilities but after the day I had I think it is better if I leave work well enough alone.

Instead, I will share the reason that I rarely cook. It is a much funnier story. At least I think so.

Back when the First child was born, I was the sole source of baby food. Since it was summer, Mike promised that he would feed me as I had to feed the baby. Fair enough. When fall came and we resumed work, I was forced to cook a few times a week when Mike had to work late. I had a standard repitoire and rarely burned anything. We ate pretty well if I do say so myself.

Then the Second (Male) child was born and I, once again, was the sole source of food for many months. However, I was also at home most of the time for the first few months so I did a decent amount of the cooking. Then I returned to work for the Spring semester and Mike took over again. We ate very well as he had lots of time on his hands as I was doing the drop off and pick of the kids every day.

Then the summer came. And then the Fall and a return to school. And then came the fateful night when I cooked a dish I had made many times before. This time, however, I either turned the heat up too much or added too little liquid and before we knew it we smelled it ... burnt dinner. O.k., everyone burns things. The next day I get a call at work ... "what are you going to char tonight?" I have barely cooked since. And now that I am banned from the kitchen ... hey, more knitting time!

It is Declared

... that Mommy is no allowed in the kitchen any more (except to clean it and maybe make a cup of tea)! I committed a few sins last night while left fend for myself and the kids. I left a sharp knife out -- unwashed. I left the mayonnaise out. And, I committed the ultimate sin of putting mayonnaise on Male Child's pastrami sandwich. (I didn't think he'd eat mustard and hey, the sandwich is on Potato bread!) Please note that it is not the Male child that is complaining (tho he may do so after eating his lunch today). I have been banished by the King of the Kitchen. He who provides edible food for us. I can deal with that. (This is the man who came home from work yesterday, made dinner for us, and then left to go to a work-related dinner. He left everything nice and warm and only left the steaming of the asparagus for me to do -- the people from the Big Corporation that sponsor his mentoring program were a bit astonished. Do I have it good or what!) One of these days I will share the whole long story of why I, essentially, no longer cook.

I and thinking of running away to Disney World. What do you think? Our school belongs to a consortium and the annual conference is in Orlando this year. In the past I have not been able to attend and frankly, have not wanted to. This year, however, I am thinking that two nights alone in a hotel room with food and board paid for, sounds kind of good. I am even thinking of extending it for one night. My friend is extending for two but I feel a bit guilty about going to Disney without the kids. I could rejigger camp and bring them but since someone has to stay home to supervise the construction, it really does not work.

So, dear blog reader, I am asking ... do I go? And, if I do, do I extend for a day or two?

Blowin' in the Wind

The wind defeated our plan of riding up to and over the George Washington Bridge. We went as far as Fairways and then rode back down to Stuyvesant H.S., hit Chocolate Haven and then rode home. Total mileage: 17.5 so we did not break 100 miles today. The kids, however, were finally able to ride up the 2 hills on this stretch of path. The hill on the return trip is a steep, narrow, winding hill and I rarely get up it without walking because of the traffic coming in the opposite direction. They both made it but I had to walk the last few yards due to a wonky chain.

Next week, weather permitting we will try for a long ride on Saturday. On Sunday we'll host a few young ladies at a birthday Tea Party at the T Salon. To further our goal of riding on Saturday, Mike has already started baking the birthday cake. (The actual birthday is still 10 days away.)

Yesterday saw the purchase of a bike rack to attach to our newly installed hitch on the car but we still have not figured out where our first drive-to ride will be. We are contemplating riding New York State Bike Route 9 up to Mike's sister's place. This would not be a single trip, initially, but might exist as a series of "park the car and ride a 20 - 30 mile round trip" as we build up our mileage. It might be cool to view the entire 70 mile ride (one-way) as a goal for the end of the summer. We shall see ...

On a fibery note, I finally finished plying the ??? yarn and spun a bobbin-full of the rose corriedale. The plying had to be finished if I wanted to spin anything else on the Kromski -- all of my other bobbins are holding assorted singles. Woven gained a few more rows last night and the sockette gained a few while blog surfing.

On other fronts, there are two more weekends from now until summer break and the start of construction. We have three different appointments on Wednesday afternoon all looking toward the future. The first -- Sherry is coming to give 3 of us hair cuts. Woo Hoo! Male Child is looking a bit scruffy. (Mike is almost bald right now.) Then (actually, simultaneously), Heather is coming for this week's violin lessons at which we may be purchasing the kids' adult size violins. (She got a good deal on some very good violins and is giving us first crack at them.) Then ... Glen is coming to talk to us about the construction. Finally I get to talk about paint colors and flooring and timetables. Yea!!! We will try to forget that Wednesday also marks the start of the New York State Regents period and that countless high school students will be sweating through the Global History exam from 1:15 until 4:15. Personally, Wednesday marks the beginning of the end of the school year and this year I am really looking forward to it. I am not looking forward to the dust and discomfort of the construction but I am looking forward to a freshly renovated and painted apartment. I will try to put up some "before" pictures prior to Glen starting the demolition.

First Dance

I want to burst into the song "Last Dance," which is what they played as the last dance at the Female Child's first dance / party on Friday.
Here she is, all dressed up. I know you can't see it, but we even polished her toe nails. She had a good time but said to me after, "I can't dance!" My answer was simple -- me neither! When I got there, many of the girls were sobbing. Strangely enough, my kid was not one of them. Apparently, these fifth grade ladies were upset about the school year ending and everyone going to different middle schools. I can understand this. I am glad that my kid -- who gets emotional about LOTS of things, was not crying over this. Her logic -- "there are still twelve days of school." O.k. I guess we get the tears on the 28th.

While all of the drama of the dance was going on, I amused myself by sitting in a nearby Starbucks and knitting this:
Most of the Tulips and all of the Gingham were knit on Friday. I can get a fair amount done if left uninterrupted for 2 hours. The latest pair of sockettes is also growing with both socks now on the needles. I started worrying that there would not be enough to make both socks long enough so I took out my scale, split the ball, and started the second sock on my other set of size 0 circulars. I am now more confidant about the amount of yarn but I want to get the second sock up to the point of the first before I push on to the toes. Yes, I said toes. I am making these cuff-down with a dutch heel. I'm branching out! Two pairs of cuff-down socks on the needles at once. Will the world ever be the same?

Now to gear up for today's bike ride. We have big plans but may be defeated by the wind. I'll let you know.

Cross Stitch

*** My apologies for the lack of posting -- Blogger has been down the last two nights. ***

The following pictures are Theresa's fault. She has been blogging about her renewed interest in cross stitching and I was inspired to show some of my efforts over the years.

I started cross stitching while pregnant with the Female child. I took it up because my hands were too swollen to tat (my fiber hobby at the time). How I was able to hold a tiny needle but not a tatting shuttle I do not know but I kept on with the stitching for 4 or 5 years producing a fair amount of work including the pillows you see below.

Originally, they were intended to be decorative and would dress up the kids' rooms. Pooh and Piglet belong to Female Child and Eeyore and the balloon scene belong to Male Child.

You will notice that the children felt that pillows were for sleeping, not for decoration and proceeded to sleep on them every night.

When Piglet started losing his lettering, Female Child switched to Pooh. Male Child, however, never switched pillows so poor Eeyore is in shreds. Seems fitting that it is Eeyore that got loved to death.

I am not allowed to throw Eeyore out. When Male Child realized that he was beyond repair, tears fell. Big, emotion laden tears. Almost enough to make me want to remake Eeyore. Almost. I love my kids but Eeyore was boring! Lots and lots of endless blue. And, cross stitch no longer holds my attention the way it used to. So, I did what any clever mom would do, I pulled out a book of Pooh cross stitch patterns that I just happened to have handy and taught the Male Child how to cross stitch.

He is now making a new Eeyore but using a different pattern. The child is meticulous. The most obsessive stitcher would not find fault with the back of his work. He has only done a hundred stitches or so but still ... I promise to show this work of art when and if it is ever completed. Meanwhile he is sleeping on a smushy novelty pillow that we picked up somewhere. I suspect that my kids will never sleep on normal pillows.

Awww...

This is what I found when I opened the door to Male Child's room this morning. If you look closely you can see a hand in the foreground (wearing a watch) and a foot in the background. The rest of said child is under the blanket.










This is what I found when I flipped back the comforter. That is Dumbo under his belly. This was one tired kid. Usually I open his door when I go in to shower and the sound of the shower and radio tend to wake him up naturally. Today I did not open the door until after the shower but I flipped the comforter immediately (after snapping the picture) and then left for a while. I then came back and turned on the hall light (right outside his room). Then I raised the volume on the t.v. Finally, only after Female Child had awoken on her own, did I gently rub his shoulder to wake him up.

I hate to actually wake the kids. They are much happier when they wake on their own -- even if I caused them to wake by doing things like opening the door or raising the blinds. I let him sleep late today to make up for the early wake-up yesterday and to give his body the chance to recuperate from the ride. I know that I was wiped out from yesterday. The constant stopping and starting was tough on my body and the section of Belgian Block paved road left my hands and arms aching.

Knitting content: The first cuff for Tulips is done. Notice how Woven is sitting out for a bit. I am on a small project kick right now but maybe if there is some good t.v. tonight Woven can see some progress.

Tour de Brooklyn

My kid brother thought I was kidding when I said we were going to ride the Tour de Brooklyn today. He figured we were just going for a ride in Brooklyn. Nope. Along with hundreds -- Mike thinks possibly thousands -- of other riders, we wended our way through 19 miles of Brooklyn streets with a police escort. It was very cool but I am not sure I want to repeat it. The sheer volume of people riding bikes was way cool but the dynamics of this kind of ride were a bit frustrating, for me, with two kids along.

(the start of the ride)

As always, both kids did amazingly and the pace was slow enough that even Male Child (and his accompanying parent (me)) did not wind up at the extreme back of the pack. All told, we did about 22 miles with having to ride to 14th street and back for the subway and the ride to the Tour start from the Brooklyn subway stop.

Mike is playing with uploading our track from the GPS to Google maps and these posts may soon come with links to maps of our adventures. To further facilitate our explorations on two wheels, I am having a hitch receiver installed on the car this week so that we can put on a 4 bike carrier.

On the knitting front, I have 3 pairs of socks to present. Plain Socks 2, Pomatomous, and the Bee Stripe socks. The Bee socks look much cooler off then on. The 2 X 2 rib that I use on the kids socks causes the stripes to look fuzzy here. The heel shot shows the stripes much better. The Plain Socks are knit in Trekking XXL (color forgotten), Pomatomous is knit in Claudia's Handpaints and Bee Stripes are knit in Lorna's Laces Bee Stripe. For those of you using Claudia's Handpaints -- watch out if you are knitting for large feet. Two skeins JUST made it for my size 10 feet. One of the skeins had less than a yard left after kitchering. Now on the needles, a pair of sockettes for Female child using the first Dye-o-rama attempt. Soon to go on are the Tulip and Gingham socks from Knitpicks for the same child.

Unexpected Life

I did NOT plant Morning Glories this year. So, why ...
do I have 4 Morning Glory plants growing?

I do recognize them. Morning Glories have been a staple of my little balcony garden ever since I started it a few years ago and discovered how pretty they are in bloom. I love futzing with them and training them along my string trellises to try to get a nice effect. I did not plant them this year because I have had a persistent problem with some sort of bug that winds up killing them and almost everything else on my balcony. Instead, I only planted things that seem to resist the annual infestation -- tomatoes and daisys. I did not even water the pots that used to hold the Morning Glories. But then, it rained. And it rained. And one of the pots was near the edge of the balcony so it got wet. And it got sun. And old seeds sprouted. Now I have morning glories growing and I had to rig another trellis in a year when I had sworn off fiddly gardening because of the construction. So much for that. I cannot intentionally kill a baby plant. (Unintentionally, sure but not intentionally.) And so I will have Morning Glories. Yea!!

Tomorrow I should have both knitting and biking content.

Random Tuesday?

There is a new addition to my sidebar -- we are now tracking our mileage for the season. I'd add a graphic but I am not particularly good at that kind of thing.

The latest, not blogged about trip, came about out of my need to exercise outside instead of on the stationary bike. My favorite form of outdoor exercise is roller blading and I got a new pair of blades last summer that are much cozier then my old "Darth Vader boots." My solo skating quickly became a family event when I asked Female child if she wanted to join me. Then we asked Male Child ... and then Mike, who was just finishing up his morning workout on the stationary bike. And off we went, me on my blades and everyone else on a bike. You can guess what happened of course ... I got one of the best cardio workouts ever since I had to push hard to try to catch up with them.

I hear that my kid brother and his fiance are now thinking about getting bikes. Did we inspire him? Do I have to point out that he does not know how to ride a bike? But hey, that is cool, I can't dive and he is a certified life-guard. I, however, am unwilling to learn how to dive at this point in my life and he is willing to learn to ride a bike. Go Josh!

Biking has been a part of my life since I was about 8. I love getting on 2 wheels and exploring new places. You can get much further, faster, on wheels versus on foot. You get far closer to your environment then in a car. During summers when the rest my family would be swimming, I would be out on the bike path and all around town.

My first year in college I brought my bike down to DC with me and had a great time exploring that city. While my bike never made it to Ithaca, no room in my dorm, it got heavy use after I moved back to NY and Mike and his Mom taught me how to ride in Manhattan streets.

For years I used it to commute to work, first from a 5th floor walk-up (yup, I schleped it up and down the stairs) and later, shorter ride from my mother-in-law's place after bringing Female child to her by bus. It was faster then the bus and I loved the feeling of not being confined in a bus or train.

I stopped commuting while pregnant for the second time and have sorely neglected my bike since then. I have so neglected it that I actually no longer own a bike of my own. Mike owns 3 bikes -- the Lotus (now our trainer, stationary bike), the Sequoia (his first fancy bike) and his Bike Friday, the folder. My bike was given to a friend when we cleaned out his Mom's apartment. When we go out as a family, I now ride the Sequoia -- I am sorry I ever scoffed at the price. It is a magnificent ride. Both kids ride very good bikes and I am glad that I did my research prior to purchasing Female child's first bike. They have both learned to love this as much as Mike and I do.

Enough about biking ... this is supposed to be a knitting blog.

Both the bee-stripe socks and Pomatomous are coming along. Both heels are turned and off we go toward the cuff of one and the toe of the other. Woven was neglected as it was too hot to have her on my lap at night. The ??? wool is mostly plied now. One more session will finish it up.

Have a lovely Tuesday.

Crossing Bridges

There comes a time in everyone's life that one must step back, look ahead and think if they should cross this particular bridge. As a family, we did just that today and wound up ...





















in Brooklyn. (Did you think I was getting philosophical on you?)

Both kids made it up the Brooklyn Bridge on their bikes, without walking. Then, after a mile or so, made it up and over the Manhattan Bridge. The journey to Brooklyn was pleasant and uneventful with Male Child pushing himself to greater and greater velocity. Mike and the Female Child had barely time to stop and get water bottles out when we caught up to them at almost every point. The only place they had to wait for long was on the Manhattan side of the Manhattan Bridge.


Our route today (for those that care) started at our usual point on the Hudson River and took us down to Stuyvesant High School, around Battery Park City, past the Statue of Liberty-to-Manhattan swimmers, around the southern tip of Manhattan, up to the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge, up, over said Bridge (see first photo), through just a few streets in Brooklyn, up and over the Manhattan Bridge, through a few streets of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, up through the East River Park, up on to Water Side Plaza (where we used to live) and across town back to home with a brief stop at Kalustyans. Total ride: 16 miles Total to date as a family: 54 miles

Here are both kids with the Manhattan Bridge in the foreground and the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

The kids gained valuable hill climbing and street riding experience. (We purposely planned the street riding knowing that traffic would be light today.) We all had a fabulous time. Next week, the Tour de Brooklyn!





And all 4 bikes resting outside of Kalyustans. I got to stand guard so I got some knitting done.

My Space

Scout is being nosy. These are some of my knitting / spinning spots. To include all of them I would have to take a picture of all of our local playgrounds as well as the building's laundry room.

This is my Chair. I knit here while blog surfing and this is my main spinning chair. The wheel is out of sight, off to the left. Yes, the unfinished plain socks are on the back of the arm of the chair.

This is my favorite spinning and weaving spot but is only useful in warmish weather. My balcony faces west so we get the late afternoon sun. I rarely knit here since there are so many other places I can knit. For some reason, I get a kick out of spinning and weaving outdoors. Spinning ??? on it was a great experience. This roving was so full of VM that I was constantly stopping and picking it out. Inside I keep a pillowcase on my lap and am careful not to dump the stuff on the floor. Outside I just let it fly.

Our couch is my evening knitting spot. I curl up or stretch out with a more complicated project then I would work on while surfing or in public. The current couch projects are Pomatomus and Woven. If you look on the floor in front of the couch you will see a glimpse of a blankie that my sister crocheted for Female Child almost 11 years ago. Except for one, small, recent repair, it is still going strong and gets used almost every day. It lives on or near the couch.

I actually got several inches done on the second Pomatomus sock yesterday. After running our morning errands and strolling through a street fair, the kids and I spent the late afternoon in my least favorite playground. They rode bike and scooter and I sat, listening to my audio book and knitting away on the sock. The pattern is finally coming easily -- the first sock was somewhat of a struggle - -and I continued to work on it a bit in the evening. Only a few more rows until the heel. Woven is coming along but a bit more slowly now that I have to stop every so often to switch yarns for each piece.

The ??? singles are all spun. Any balcony spinning time today will involve plying.

Now, off to pack for today's bike ride!

Happy Birthday Mom!

(This is going up a day early since Mom, Dad and little Sis are heading to Boston tomorrow to see the kid brother.)

A quick, Public, Happy Birthday to Mom! This is the wonderful woman who came in to my life when I was just 12 and, poor woman, had the dubious pleasure of dealing with my teenage years. Fortunately this did not put her off kids and due to her, I have 4 great sibs instead of the 2 I had back then. It is Mom who taught me to load a table with food and always ask myself "is there enough?" Even, when the table is already groaning. She tried to teach me to shop but never managed to succeed. Much more luck was had with my female siblings. When you think about Nature vs Nurture ... Nurture wins out here. Happy Birthday, Mom, Mud, Joan ... you know who you are.

Fleet Week

One would think that I would be a bit smarter. After all, on Tuesday I noted the arrival of metal barricades lining the West Side Highway near the Intrepid. Then on Wednesday I noted the arrival of the first ships. Even yesterday, as I was walking to the car, I mentioned to Mike (via that forbidden cell phone) that I should avoid the West Side Highway because of Fleet Week Traffic. So, what did I do? I let automatic pilot take over and before I knew it I was on the West Side Highway at 96th Street -- in bumper to bumper traffic. D'oh! (For purists, this portion of road is actually called the Henry Hudson Parkway and then the Jackie Robinson Parkway. It becomes the West Side Highway at 57th Street, then 12th Avenue and then West Street. It is a strange road but we love it.)

For your pleasure:The fuzzy shapes in the background are the masts of some of the Fleet Week ships. The streets near the piers were floating in a sea of white uniforms as the sailors started to take their leave in our fair city. For the next few days we will walk around and smile and wave at these wonderful men and women and, where possible, point them in the right direction. I love Fleet Week, I think it is cool and I love that our city has a chance to host our Servicemen and women. The traffic? I can figure out how to avoid it. This is one time when I do not curse the invading hordes.

Yesterday, the military was doing fly-overs all day. I got to see the undersides of two of the passes and it was very cool. Mike, however, did not feel the same way. Having been downtown on 9/11, he found the sound of the planes a little freaky. I do understand this.

If it is not raining, we intend to walk or ride up to the ships tomorrow to get a closer look. We tend to do this every year, almost at the crack of dawn -- to avoid the crowds. We don't get in line to tour them -- we just gaze from afar. Uptown, however, is no longer our destination for this week's bike ride. The congestion on the bike-running path near the ships will be too much by the time we return. The current plan is to go down and around the southern tip of Manhattan on Sunday and maybe over the Brooklyn Bridge and back. We have reserved spots in the Tour de Brooklyn on Sunday, June 4. Anyone want to join us?

And for those of you who need your fiber content:
This is the last of the ??? wool, all predrafted and ready to spin. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow ... Will it be done by Monday? Come back and find out!

Progress

Lots of stuff on various topics today ...

No, I have not been neglecting Woven. Here she is in all her cardiganly goodness. The lower portion of the front-back-front is about 1 inch short of the armholes. The next skeins have already been wound in anticipation of this dividing event. It is at this point that I realize that there is only one more skein of the ??? yarn ready for knitting. I had better do some serious spinning this weekend. Really, there is only a couple of hours worth of spinning left on the last bobbin and then, a marathon plying session. Yes, I am convinced that there will be more then enough to finish this project.

The Bee-Stripe socks are coming along but I am still on the first one. I did finish the latest pair of Plain Socks but (lots of buts today) they still need their ends hidden and a dropped stitch secured. I promise I will take care of it this weekend.

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We are all up and moving earlier then usual this morning. Will this translate in to leaving the house on time? Probably not. It seems that the more time we have in the morning, the more likely we are to futz around and get involved in various projects. My project this morning -- figure out why my clock radio is now set to a station broadcasting the BBC World news. I suspect that our local NPR may have changed their line up ...

And on the topic of NPR, I really like listening to it and it is my main car station when I am alone. When my favorite oldies station switched formats I decided to tune the clock radio to NPR. What I have discovered is that the mellow style of the NPR hosts tends to lull me in to a half-awake state and not really wake me up properly. This is both good and bad. I absorb some interesting news but I tend to have to rush through my morning ablutions.

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To answer TCMcCormick's question of the other day -- Yes. The Chancellor has banned cell phones from NYC public schools. My answer as a parent -- when all of the payphones on the streets work and when schools have more then adequate phone service, then I will take my kids phones back and send them with quarters. Until then, my kids carry cell phones. My answer as his employee -- if I see a cell phone I will take it. I don't see many.

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Dye-o-rama news -- I found the perfect box. We received a small shipment of Metrocards yesterday at school and the box is just the right size. Now to just remember to bring it home. I am still on target to get it out this weekend. Yea!!!

Dye-O-Rama experiments

Here we go -- the long, detailed post of our adventures in dying. Female child was my able assistant for all four experiments and Male child helped out for the first two.

I started out with the thought that a hugely long skein was not necessary for self-striping yarn. What if I wound the skein back on to my knitty-noddy and tied off mini skeins every 10 wraps or so (2 yards per wrap). We would then start at either end of the master skein and color 2 skeinettes at a time in small baggies with the appropriate colors. We were going for a ROY G. BIV effect. You can see that we got through the first set of ROY G. before giving up. It was at this point that the skeinettes fell off of the chopstick that had been keeping them in sequenence and I decided that trying to sort out the vingear soaked skeinettes was not worth the trouble. We then just artistically splooshed the remaining dyes on to the spagetti mass that was the rest of the yarn. The mass got put in to a large ziplock bag and the whole mess was put in the steamer for 30 minutes. You can see the result. The middle mass is actually a lovely mixture of reds and blues and purples and will make a lovely pair of sockettes for me or the Female Child. I will probably use the outer, rainbow colored pieces for baby socks (I can just feel my sister and sister-in-law cringing). The concept of tying worked wonderfully though it did take time. The problem we encountered was keeping the skeinettes in proper sequence. I suspect that this would work if I had squirt bottles and laid everything out on a large cookie sheet instead of dipping in baggies. Maybe I will try it again some time.
Dye experiment number 2

Female child suggested dying it in thirds so that we would get bleeding between the sections and wind up with a 5 color skein. The yarn was reskeined by wrapping it around two chairs held apart by our dining room table. The resulting skein is roughly 4 yards in diameter maybe 5.

The skein was presoaked in vinegar/water (1 part to 6 parts) and zig-zagged across a cookie sheet covered with plastic wrap. The colors were applied hot. You can see where the zigs met the zags and the color spilled to the wrong part of the skein. This was deemed an incomplete success and will probably become socks for Female child or me.

Third time is the charm. We used Female Child's idea again but this time I got smart and drapped the skein in to 3 dishes for the dye application. The green spots were due to a failure to wash or change gloves at one point.

Both try 2 and try 3 were steamed as per try 1.






And now, presenting my swap yarn. After all of our experiments we reread our mail and realized that my swap partner was not a primary-color type of gal. Since she indicated that she liked rich colors and that greens were good ...
This skein was wrapped around 4 chairs so it is longer then the others. The ends were dipped in hot dye distributed in two pyrex dishes. We smushed and smooshed to try to distribute the dye evenly but we obviously failed. I like the gradations however, so this one is considered a total success and will go in the mail this weekend.

All skeins were colored with food dyes with the New York Baking Supply label. I suspect they are a variation on Wiltons. Said dyes were "borrowed" from Mike's cake decorating box. He is now out of red, blue and brown.

The Good Things in Life

Good Friends and Good Food

Sharing a lovely dinner at Spice Market with friends who appreciate good food. The food was amazing with some moments that make you wonder if it can get any better. Babysitting provided by another Good Friend.

Good Music

Maxim Vengerov at Carnegie Hall. I knew he was Mike's favorite violinist and now I know why.

Family

People who call when they know you will be low. Yes, it really is appreciated.

Good and tired

I promised you that we were heading to the Little Red Lighthouse today so here they are. The superstructure on the right is the base of the George Washington Bridge -- Manhattan side.









And here they are about 2 miles further -- at Spuyten Duyvil, as close to the northern tip of Manhattan as we could get.












Proof that Mike and his Bike Friday made it -- that is the Spuyten Duyvil bridge in the background sticking out. It rotates on its axis so that boats can get from the Harlem River to the Hudson River.


(Mike making it is actually not a big deal since he does this ride fairly frequently.)






And lastly, proof that I made it. (It really is not a huge deal for me either.)

It is, however a huge deal that the kids did this trip -- a total of 21 miles and the second half of the trip was against headwinds that made me tired. The kids were great and both managed the first hill without having to dismount. The second hill is just a nasty, wicked thing leading up from the Lighthouse and only Mike made it on his bike. I even walked part of it downhill on the return trip. The descent was so steep that I got a bit freaked. Unfortunately, my bike shoes are somewhat slippery so walking it was not much better.

I picked up a couple of boo boos when Mike asked me to diagnose a problem with his bike. I couldn't free my left foot and took a tumble. My legs should look lovely in a dress tomorrow.

Any NYCers out there know how to navigate the greenway over to the Bronx? Next week we are possibly aiming for the Bronx or New Jersey.

Important? For whom?

I never fail to find it surprising that news items that are very important to me are totally overlooked by others. I am not sure why this should surprise me. Obviously people find different things important or interesting and other things just fall outside of their zone. I do it too. Sports, for example -- could not care less. Others, however, can name every member of the NFL or NBA or what have you.

My current example of a news item I find important is the whole school / cell phone thing that is bubbling away here in NYC. I follow the news with extreme interest and have animated conversations about it with colleagues and family. My interest stems from both my profession and my standing as a parent of two NYC public school students. This is a subject on which I have very strong feelings and I find it almost surprising to find that others, even other elementary school parents, are not following it. I suppose I should just get over my amazement and get the clue that it is an area of concern for a relatively small portion of the overall population -- NYC middle and high school parents and administrators of the same schools.

On the knitting front, one bee-stripe sock is in the heel turning stage and the current plain sock is nearing the ribbing. I am using the Judy Gibson's toe-up pattern for the heel for this sock. I want to get away from the standard short row heel that I usually use and play a bit with heel types but I am finding it difficult to locate the urls of sites that have the different variations on the flap heel for a toe-up sock. I may have to resort to knitting top-down but with size 10 feet I am still more comfortable running out of yarn on the leg instead of on the foot. If anyone can point me to other toe-up heels ... please leave a comment.

On the dyeing front, Female Child and I will dye one more skein tonight and then decide which of the four is going to my swap partner. With luck it should go out either this Sunday or next Saturday.

Our plans for the weekend include a bike ride up to the Little Red Light House (and back) and a much more sober activity on Sunday. I am determined to enjoy Saturday since I know that Sunday will be sad. As always, the only way to get to the other side is to go through it so we will do just that and come out stronger for it.