New Handspun!

I've been getting a bit more even in my spinning, finally. I've got about half of this luscious aqua-turquoise-y corriedale spun up and it actually looks like something that will come out nicely once it's plied. Hurray for practice. Now that Chelle has been bitten by the spinning bug too, we are planning a possible spinning weekend sometime later this year... doesn't it sound like fun? (The idea blossomed when we both were lamenting that we couldn't afford to go to Yarn School this fall.)

Off to spin some more...

Camry

So, the Jeep has been sold & we turned around and got a smaller, more fuel-efficient car for Ali. It's a '96 Camry. Isn't it adorable?

An update on the bird situation

The mama bird mentioned a few posts back was safely reunited with her babies, apparently. We saw a good bit of activity with several birds around the wheelwell as the babies fledged and started to fly. Then, last couple of days, nothing. We checked the nest & discovered it had been abandoned -- they've grown up & flown away, it seems! At last we can drive the Jeep again. Just in time, too; Mike wants to sell it this summer. (Psst, wanna buy a gently used Jeep? No charge for an extra feather or two.)

Summer Fayre

Summer is a cumin in, laudly sing cucu. Dome Hill Yarns did a spinning demo today at a local church renfaire, which was a lot of fun. I didn't sell much yarn -- basically just enough to cover my booth fee -- but who cares? How often, after all, do I get a chance to sit and spin all day?

From the "You're not gonna believe this" files

We haven't been driving the Jeep much this spring... Mike drives his truck & I'm mostly in the Yaris... so imagine Mike's surprise when he popped the hood on the Jeep to look at the engine and found this.

Some enterprising contortionist of a mama bird must have come up through the wheel well to build a nice, secluded nest. There's two baby birds in there!

Unfortunately, Mike fired up the engine before he realized that the nest was there. It didn't seem to harm the babies at all (the nest is well away from the moving parts), but we're afraid that the noise & smell & all that may have scared away the mama bird. Hopefully she'll come back soon.

Vacation '08, day 8

Heading home today... Mike's dad Norm will come with us to visit for a few weeks. We hook up with him bright and early, say our farewells to Ron, and head for the interstate. Hunter wants to ride with Grandpa, so I give him my cell phone so we'll have communication between the two cars. This turns out to be my best decision of the day, because Norm misses the turnoff for I-25 and gets hopelessly lost. We get clear of downtown and pull off I-70 near the airport to wait for them to catch up. However, after the third call from Hunter to say they are still lost, we turn around & head back to retrieve them. Norm is pretty frustrated by this point, since he's not familiar with the downtown tangle of Denver and has never really gotten familiar with his built-in navigation console doohickey. Once we find them, Mike takes the wheel of Norm's Jeep; I'm piloting the van. Norm seems to be happy to let someone else drive for a while, since he hardly ever sits in the passenger seat. We finally get out of Denver and begin the trek east on I-70. Unfortunately, it's well past 10:30 by this point which is going to make for a VERY long day.

Nothing eventful happens for the rest of the day, just drive, drive, stop at a rest stop, drive, drive, stop for gas & a meal, etc. It's tremendously windy across all of Kansas, which makes it just exhausting to fight the wheel, mile after mile. I'm overjoyed to hit the state line. Another hour or so puts us home and ready to fall into bed. This was a really good vacation, lots of memories and souvenirs, but we're all grateful to sleep in our own beds tonight.

Vacation '08, day 7

No travelling today, just visiting with Ron and Norm in the morning. The kids get antsy in the afternoon, so I leave Mike to talk with the guys and take us back to the hotel to swim. This turns out to be a mistake because we get seriously sunburned... I've forgotten that the air is a bit thinner in the Mile-High City. (sigh)