Busy Bees

Well, busy for ME, usually I'm sitting around knitting and not much else :-)

No pix but here are some updates:

1. I reached my 40 pounds lost goal last week, hooray!  Then promptly celebrated by gaining 2 lbs. this week.  And had my first gout flare up in months when I foolishly drank 3 glasses of wine at our dinner party (Peggy and her partner Patricia came over, along with Tony's new gal Laura.  Lots of fun!)  Back on the diet horse this week.

2.  We love Laura!  Tony's new gal pal is perfect for him: cute, athletic, smart, lots of fun, a good cook who does paleo/gluten free, and just an all-around great person.  It makes me so happy to see my boy so happy.  And bonus, she's an occupational therapist so I'm set for those old lady needs like a walker and arthritis exercises.

3.  Visitors!  Susna is coming over for a couple of days, bringing Logan and Hadley.  Can't wait to see those three ladies!  I may be babysitting Katie's friend Sara's little girl.  So we will be taking a toddler with us on whatever adventures we go on.  But I figure Logie and Hads are a nanny's best friend so I'm confident we can keep little Sienna Miller (the baby not the movie actress) entertained.

4. Garden:  we have two peppers, four tomatoes at last count,  a bunch of onions, and lots of squash/zukes in various stages of growth.  I haven't checked today, but looking out the window it appears that the garden has gone crazy over the last couple of very hot days, so hoping for much more produce.

5. Camping:  Tony and I got our long-planned camping trip accomplished after 3 years of talking about it.  We (Tony, Laura, Cara and I) were hosted by Jon and Lorraine at "The Property" (it really needs a good name)  The weather and the lake were perfect.  The company was lots of fun -- Alex and I manned the pedal boat for a tour around the lake (little did I know that my 6 months of riding the recumbent bike were going to pay off -- no knee pain at all pedaling the boat for an hour).  Jon was his usual hilarious self.  And Cara and I survived a night in the tent.  Luckily, Pooh had purchased a cot for me, so no need to actually sleep on the ground :-)  The two of us had to cut the trip short after one night to go home and take care of the dogs plus my above-mentioned gout situation.  But hopefully we can go back soon, as we now have all kinds of camping gear

6. Knitting: (obligatory content)  I am working on a couple of pairs of socks (one pair for Liam, who requested "light green, thick socks" -- couldn't say no to that), my ongoing "Crackerjack" scarf with stripes knit after each Mariners game, color depending on home/road win/loss, plus a sample cowl for the yarn shop.  I have about a million things I'm itching to start and some ideas for new designs of my own, so I need to knit faster.

7.  Katie is away at Camp Cross this week, it's going to be kind of quiet around here.  And dinners are going to be dull.  I hate to cook and Cara isn't much better so we rely on Katie for imaginative cooking.  Come home fast before we starve Katie!