FREAKING OUT!

Because I just walked into the kitchen and this scampered across the counter:

And disappeared up into the panel on the stove where the knobs are.

OMG.  I hate rodents so so much!  I may never eat in our kitchen again.  This is good for the Weight Watchers program as Katie pointed out.  But I'm still freaked out.

Have a call into a pest control place to come out and inspect.  Until then, I may be at a hotel...

I Love Coach Beiste

I'm not a diehard Glee fan.  When Rachel starts belting out a show tune (in other words, screaming), I get an urge to strangle someone.

However, there is one character that I love without reservations: Coach Beiste.  She is completely awesome.

Here's a line from last night's show:

"In college, I was in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I played the Forum"


How can you not love this gal.  My other favorite C.B. moment was when she and Will went to the cowboy bar and she sang "One Bourbon One Scotch and One Beer".  Classic.


More Beiste, less Rachel!

Katie, the Finder of Amazing Websites

when we were at dinner the other night, I mentioned to Katie that the lady sitting across from us had "Steve Buscemi eyes".  She immediately whipped out her phone and showed me this "Tumblr" (what IS that anyways?) called "Chicks with Steve Buscemi Eyes".  It's hilarious. 

1. Why am I always one step behind the geniuses who create these sites?  I could be a millionaire if I only thought up stuff a little bit faster :-)
2. When does Katie actually get any work done?  She knows every fun website EVER.

A New Pub in the 'hood

Pia, Katie and I went to dinner last night at our new local "gastropub" The Manito Tap House.  Along with everyone who lives in the Manito neighborhood.  Evidently, we've ALL been waiting for this joint to open.

For those who are familiar with the Manito Shopping Center (that's Cara and Pooh), the pub is in the old Peartree Restaurant next to the liquor store.  Katie says Grandpa is devastated that the Peartree closed down.  I don't believe I ever ate there in the 25+ years I've lived in Spokane, so I'm okay with it.

Two thumbs up!  They have 50 beers on offer, with a lot of unfamiliar names (in fact I don't think I've ever heard of 49 of them).  I tried a "Double Dead Guy" Ale (a little bitter for me, but I managed to finish it off), Pia had a Granny Smith Cider (like an alcoholic Jolly Rancher, and you cannot go wrong w that combo), and Katie had a Tangerine Dream Hefeweisen (def. had an orange flavor).  So we've only got 47 to go before we've sampled them all.

And the food was excellent!  As Katie said, even though it was kind of "fancy food", she'd definitely try out more stuff on their menu.  None of us are super adventurous eaters, but they managed to create a menu with interesting food that isn't weird.  Katie & I scarfed down a crab and asparagus dip (Pia doesn't like either of those items, haha more for us!), and our entrees were equally good.  I especially LOVED the pickled vegetables that I chose as my side dish, the asparagus was TDF.  I could have happily eaten a plate of pickled asparagus. 

Anyway, we now have a fun and tasty spot within walking distance (not that we walked last night of course) that's better than Subway.  Yay!

Moving!

not me though  :-)

For once, someone ELSE is moving!  Sue and Tom are heading to Mukilteo to this cute place!  You can see more pix here .

Their new digs are just a teensy bit smaller than their present house.  So there's going to be a heckuva garage sale coming up I'm guessing.

I'll be heading over to lend my packing skills. 

So glad you guys found a cute new place!  And who doesn't love Mukilteo.

The Power of A Big Sister

Cara has the power of life and death over poor Tony.

I was chatting with her the other day and she mentioned she needed to get a hanger for the little panda bear I sent her, so she could hang it in her car.

Actually, the convo went more like this:

C: I got the the panda bear.  It's TINY!
Lavs: Yes it is a "Mochimochi" pattern, one of those crazy Japanese type knitting patterns for teeny little things like cheeseburgers, couches, etc.
C: Well, you didn't send me a hook so I could hang it up in my car!
Lavs: Um, sorry.  You could just make one out of a paperclip.
C: No, I am going to go to Joann's and get one.  I will make Pooh go with me!  He hates Joann's!
Lavs: It's kind of kryptonite for boys in that store.
C: I know!  LOLOL!  But he secretly kind of loves it when we get in there.  He always finds stuff to get.

Oh, Fred and Irene.  We have Joann's in Spokane too!  No need to worry you won't be able to do your crafts shopping when you come home!

She's Back!

In the knitting club!

Katie has been doing everything BUT knitting this summer.  But she decided to use the $400.00 worth of leftover yarn from her "scrap noodle blanket" project and knit a cool Missoni style blanket.

Yay!  Another knitting buddy!

I Don't Even Like Cake

...but I'd definitely love it if someone made me this cake.  Cakewrecks has some awesome "crafts theme" cakes today!

Is This Okay?

I am a little obsessed with Panda Bear knitting patterns this week, after finishing my adorbs Amigurumi (sp?) Panda Bear for Cara. 

So I came across a very cute pattern, but I'm really not sure the name of the bear is okay:

"CHINGCHONG PANDA"

I dunno, that seems really politically  incorrect, doesn't it? 

What's So Great About Blogging?

Sometimes it's hard to come up with new stuff to write about.  Or something I've written and thought was brills or hilarious is perceived as not quite that.  So why keep blogging?

I love to blog, even though I may not be the world's wittiest writer.  I think I've sharpened my writing skills over the past few years of working on my blog and that's a good thing even if I never write the Great American Novel.

I love reading my kids' and nieces' blogs.  It's fun and interesting to read how they view the world, what's happening in their lives, and what they think is important/funny/memorable.  I would NEVER have gotten to know my adorable great-nieces and nephew if their moms had not been blogging about them from birth.  What a marvelous way to keep in touch with far-flung relatives!

I'm envious of today's parents; they can keep an on-line baby book that's such a great record of their children's daily lives.  You always think you are going to remember all the stuff that your children said/did/didn't do --- but damn it, you forget.  We had baby books, we had cameras.  But I'm pretty sure all of the pictures I took are still on rolls of film somewhere, waiting to be developed.  And that 95% of said pictures would be blurry.  And the baby books are mostly empty.

Worried about what your child will think 20 years from now, when they read what you wrote about them?  Don't be.  My kids love to hear about all the "disasters", the days I locked them out, claiming it was "an outside day", the terrible vacations, the chasing them with a wooden spoon, and all the other misadventures in parenting.  They love those stories WAY MORE than the ones where they earned an A+, did their chores, behaved like little angels, etc.

So I'll keep writing about my adventures in knitting and life.  You keep writing, too.

For My Panda Lover

One of the highlights of my DC trip was our visit to the National Zoo, where Cara was obsessed with the Giant Pandas.

So when I saw this tiny little Panda pattern, I had to knit it.  Took about a half hour.

Cara, you can hang this in your car and remember our fun outing to the zoo!  Putting it in the mail tomorrow.  Pooh, I have a pattern for a tiny cheeseburger, I'll knit that for you to commemorate our horrible "Panda Pack" lunch at the zoo :-)

Update!

Thank you, Curtis!  After a day of fighting with Pia and Katie over WHO was going to track down and dispose of the dead bird, he found it and got rid of the corpse.

Yay for Curtis!  He is our hero!

WTF!!!!???

Evidently all kinds of animal hell broke loose while I was in VA!

WHICH I DID NOT FIND OUT ABOUT UNTIL TODAY.

1. We had a MOUSE.  Evidently it lives in our little woodpile.  And it got in the house.

2.  We had a BIRD.  Which was flying around in the kitchen.  And now the kitchen smells like death.  I've been cleaning like mad the last 2 days trying to figure out where the smell is coming from.  Tonight, Katie mentioned that it might have gotten trapped between the storm window and the window in the kitchen.  AND BE DEAD IN THERE.

People, this does NOT make me happy. AT ALL.  I'm the mother who tried to talk her 2 year old son into carrying a dead squirrel out of our basement.

Cara, I'm moving to Tennessee w you if the bird carcass doesn't get found and disposed of STAT.  By SOMEONE WHO IS NOT ME.

Another Finished Project!

The "Fornicating Deer" Hat for Jon.  Is this the perfect gift or what!?

How Cute is This Little Guy?

I just finished knitting this "Westie" from the book Best in Show.  A lady contacted me after seeing the Lulu Dog I knit for Katie, from this book.  Her sister wanted this dog and she was having trouble making it, so she hired me to knit it.  He turned out awfully cute!  If I were keeping him, his name would be "Little Dog Turpy".

Can You Believe It's Almost Fall?

Good grief, the summer went by fast!  Only a couple of weeks until Autumn!  I spruced up the blog with a new background courtesy of "The Cutest Blog on The Block".  My sidebar seems to have moved itself down to the bottom of the page (or is that just on my computer?), and I can't figure out how to fix that.  Oh well.

Anyway, our tomato plant now has 5 tomatoes, with the biggest one starting to show a bit of ripening to red.  Fingers crossed we will get at least one edible tomato!  We are supposed to have a stretch of very warm days (90+ degrees), so summer isn't quite ready to give up yet.

Pia started back at school yesterday, it's her 11th year at Freeman High School (can't believe THAT either) right P?  She says she already needs to send a student to the office :-)

First day of school...always a great day even though you hated to see summer end.  I always had a new outfit to wear for the first day, and by gosh I wore it.  Even if it was 85 degrees and my new outfit consisted of a wool sweater, wool kilt (skirt) and knee high socks.  I distinctly remember doing that one year, and being rather sweaty by the end of the day.  But one must suffer for fashion...

I'm going to start getting out my "cool weather" knitting projects, I have a wool cardigan I had to put away this summer because it was just too hot to knit a big wool garment.  Just waiting for the temp to drop!

Lavs Does It Again

I made it safely home - until I was carrying a bag of trash out to the can this afternoon.  I "missed" the step off our back porch or my flip-flop  slipped or something. Down I went. Now I am sitting here with a bag of frozen broccoli on my ankle.  It hurts.  Fingers crossed it is nothing but a little twisted ankle action :-(

Bye Bye VA

I'm homeward bound today, my VA adventure is nearly at an end.  Tony had to work today (geez doesn't Car Quest know that LABOR DAY is supposed to be the working man's holiday?) so I got a hug and kiss early this morning.  Cara is taking me to the airport later on today.  I suggested we get lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl (famous!) in DC on our way, but she reminded me I'm going to be stuck on a plane for hours and maybe a chili lunch wasn't the best idea...

I've loved my visit with the Virginians SO much!  It was great getting to spend so much time with Fred & Irene, definitely a treat for this mom who misses them like 60.  We kind of petered out on the touristy stuff the last couple of days, but I didn't mind.  Just hanging out with them was fine.  Yesterday we watched "True Grit" and "The King's Speech", which they hadn't seen (!)  I tried to make them watch 2 Kevin Costner movies they also hadn't seen ("The Upside of Anger" and "Mr. Brooks") but neither were on any channel.  HOW have they not seen these movies?  I love KC, he gets a lifetime pass on all the crap movies he's made by being in these two plus Field of Dreams and Bull Durham.  Cara & I watched several eps from season one of "Modern Family", love that show.  And I hadn't seen 2 of the eps we watched, how did that happen?

I'm covered with skeeter bites, kind of freaked out by the noise of the katydids in their yard, and my hair is getting kind of crazy with the humidity.  I'm ready to see the Spokanites and Little Lulu.  But I'm going to miss these crazy Southerners.

PS, Cara authorized me to start the house hunt in Spokane!!!! YAY!!!!

It's The Best I Can Do...

Cara will NOT allow any photos, so you're going to have to make do with a drawing:

Just imagine a lot of curly hair, a smile and a large glass of Diet Pepsi, and you have it.

Here's Lola!

Lois finally got up long enough for me to take a pic.  Still no Cara piccies tho...

Some Pix

Katie suggested I might want to take some pictures while I'm here in VA.  These people are moving targets and have issued a "NO PHOTOS" warning.  But I'll do my best.

 Tony & Lavs at Mount Vernon.  Cara forbade any photos sorry.

Walt the Wonder Dog.  He is a Portly Gentleman, and wears his girth and white whiskers well.

Will try to sneak some more pix later today.  Pooh and I are the only ones up yet, not sure what our plans are for the day.  But I suspect they involve laying around watching sports blech.

VA Day 5

We were out and about  today:

We took Walt and Lois to the groomer's for a day of beauty, and Cara's car to the tire store.  Then we hit the road to Old Town Fredericksburg.  Found a couple of thrift stores and Car got into the thrill of the hunt while helping me find items for my store.  Sadly, the knitters & crocheters of F-burg are not donating to their local charity shops, but we managed to find a few treasures.

We walked around Old Town, which still has many Revolutionary to Civil War era buildings.  We found the Soldier's Life Museum, which is now pretty much a cheesy gift store.  Had coffee at a nice place, discovered the good yarn store in town is gone (boo) and just wandered around.  Oh, Cara decided it was time for a new wallet, and we were just passing by the Vera Bradley shop.  LOVE.  Tony bought me this adorbs bag for my birthday:

So cute!  And it will work as a knitting bag too.

We had more time to kill before picking up the pups, so we drove around on VA's pretty back roads.  Lots of battlefields: Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and some others I can't remember.  It's eerie to pass by these places and know that huge battles were fought right there.  We thought maybe they were haunted...

Had lunch at Wegman's, which is a nice grocery chain here with a deli dept. kind of like Whole Foods.  Oh, we also bought shoes at DSW, which I'd never been in before.  I am finally retiring my Nikes that I've had for at least 6 years.  So I should have more spring in my step when I walk in my new sneakers.  Cara bought new work shoes; poor thing has to wear all black oxfords for work.   She might as well buy them at the Easy Spirit Store.

Tomorrow is my last day in VA.  No big plans yet, just may hang out with the kids and get enough of Fred & Irene to last me till my next visit.

VA Day 4

Our plans to head out to tour Gettysburg seem to have fallen victim to a mass attack of laziness.  We are "lorca-ing" in front of the TV today, which seems to suit us just fine.  So no exciting tourist activities to report today.

I will give you a little "domestic" news:  I was warned to NEVER leave any food on the counter.  I forgot.  And my brand new box of Corn Chex is now laying out in the yard, torn to shreds by Lois.  GAH.  I had to eat a cinnamon roll for breakfast instead of my Chex :-)  Weight Watchers is suffering this week, as we are eating Southern Style (evidently the Virginians don't love veg)  but I'll get back on the program next week.  These people love Speed Channel.  I hate Speed Channel.  A showdown is looming...

VA Day 3

More adventures!  We headed into Georgetown, which I LOVE.  Why can't I be super rich and live in an adorable G-town house? Why?  Our purpose there was so that Cara could get her iPhone fixed, so we had to go to the Apple Store.  HATE.  What a monument to smug yuppie consumerism.  That said, they did have a darling Kate Spade bag that I tried to talk Car into getting for her laptop.

After that we headed to the National Zoo, where we saw this:

Giant Pandas!  There is nothing cuter in the universe.  We spent a fair amount of time watching Mei Xiang and Tian Tian eat their meal of bamboo.  Adorbs.  I'm trying to talk Cara into becoming a zoo volunteer so she can sit  in the observation room for hours at a time and observe the pandas.

In my opinion, though this zoo has some work to do to match our beloved Woodland Park, it was pretty good.  There were some animal species I had never seen before.  And to our astonishment, Pooh is an absolute eagle-eye at finding elusive animals in the exhibits.  Without  him, I'd have seen NOTHING but tree stumps and the occasional squirrel.  This is an even more incredible talent when you know our boy, who (as Cara pointed out) goes blind in the least bit of sunlight.  Mr. photo-sensitive!

Tomorrow: Gettysburg!  Or estate sales!  Or both!