B is for Boots

I love my boots. They're a pair of Salomon hikers for which I splurged & paid about $90 a couple years back, and I barely wore them in California, but they have turned into my three-season staple out here in MO -- seeing me through muddy spring, blustery autumn, and icy winter. (It helps that I don't have to dress up for work; school-logo polo & chinos is about all I ever wear these days.)

I love the squeak-crunch of new snow under my boots.
I love warm hand-knit wool socks inside my boots. (You can see a glimpse of my Mock Cable Eyelet socks here.)
I love lacing up my boots and being ready for anything -- rain, mud, snow.

Wavy, masc.

My four millionth scarf (approximately) was made at the request of my darling huz; it is Knitty's Wavy pattern made up in a heathered-brown worsted wool. I made a lightweight Wavy last year out of a sport-weight kelly-green microfiber, which was very lovely & feminine (I am wearing it in my profile pic to the right.) Would the brown Wavy look too pretty for a manly guy like Mike? Not a bit; the worsted wool and the neutral color make it plenty masculine. I love adaptable patterns.

I am SICK SICK SICK of small projects like scarves and socks -- I have a couple more on the needles which I am pushing to finish, but I'm doing so to clear the decks for a big project. I am so overdue for a sweater or something I can really get into.

A is for Ali

The hot blog meme for 2006 is the ABC-Along, where you post a showcase picture every couple weeks according to the alphabet. Here's my foray into that world...

A is for Ali...
My lovely daughter, who thirteen-some years ago was wrapped up in a stripey blanket and put into my arms, is now tall enough to look me square in the eye. Even with the storms & cloudbursts of adolescence upon us, she has an amazing sunny smile that can light up a room & melt her mom's heart.

Housecleaning

It's perilously easy to ignore housecleaning for the week or so before you leave on vacation -- you're not gonna be there, right? Then when one is gone for a week or so, the dust doesn't go on vacation, it continues to collect in your empty house. Then for a week or so after you get back, you're newly home & haven't got around to it yet. I'm a haphazard housekeeper at best, but even I can get embarrassed when the dust-bunnies start mutating into dust-St. Bernards. We gave the bathroom & kitchen (the most critical areas) a good once-over this morning before sitting down to watch some football & run the nine thousand loads of laundry that got backed up.

We've been living in this house as a sort of temporary waystation, a step up from a hotel room but just a place to park it until the dome is finished. Well, that's not going to be happening anytime soon, so we have resolved to get this house knocked into a little bit more homey shape. A new couch, some pictures on the walls, we'll see how the place looks.

The Popcorn Book

Hunter's class did a fun little project about popcorn -- one of those interdisciplinary things that includes some geography (where was it first grown?), history (which cultures ate popcorn?), science (how does the hull pop?) and so forth. Hunter did a nice job on his project book, earning full marks & a star. But what really sets it apart was the section that he wrote at the start of the project:

Before you read, write a list of all the things you already know about popcorn.
it's yellow
it's good
it's buttery
it's delishus [sic]
it's salty
it's fun to throw at cats

Our Holiday Vacation

As promised, a few pictures from our trip. We were travelling for the nine days between Yule & New Year's. I am notorious for forgetting to take pictures while vacationing, so I don't have any from Carson City -- I think I forgot to take the camera out of its bag for the whole interval that we were there. Sorry :-{

Here is Ali's friend T. clowning around with Hunter. Good gods, he's going to break her back. We had lunch at El Torito with T.'s family -- decent Mexican food is something that's not easy to find in the Midwest, so I was quick to suggest it -- and enjoyed a nice long gab with T.'s mom & her guy. Besides good Mexican food, the other two things you just can't get in MO are good sushi & In-n-Out burgers. Yup, we had a wonderful Japanese lunch with Boo on New Year's Eve. Yup, we made a run for double-doubles animal style. Trifecta!

Had dinner & another nice long gab with our old neighbors, who amused us with stories about the kitchy decor the new owners have used to ruin our old house. They apparently have done the house in a Tommy-Bahama-cabana-club style, all canvas & beach colors. They replaced our (admittedly boring) brass chandelier in the dining room with a fixture that looks like a giant pineapple. Uff da. The neighbor's eldest boy is almost exactly the same age as Ali, but as the picture demonstrates, they've reached that stage where the girls start to shoot up in height and the boys lag behind. Makes for a funny photo :-) No, I haven't the slightest idea why Hunter has only one shoe on.

Opening presents with the grandparents was a low-key affair. Hunter is modeling his snazzy (only slightly too large) pullover from Boo.

One of Boo's clever gifts was a party pack with silly hats & glittery masks & party horns & all that stuff. We broke into it on New Year's Eve & ran around the house making noise & being silly, but didn't stay up very late at all since we has an extremely early flight to catch on the first. Behold the wild partying.

We flew home on January 1st, which oddly had no bowl games, due to it being on a Sunday. I had completely forgotten, though, that we would be in the air during the bulk of the Kansas City Chiefs game -- oh, no! Playoff hopes were shattered when we landed & learned that despite KC trouncing Cincinatti, they missed out on the last wildcard slot when Pittsburg didn't oblige us with a loss. Nutty, your Lions let me down bigtime. :-P

We're back!

No, I haven't forgotten the blog; we were on vacation in Nevada & California, visiting family & friends. Look for pix later. I hate posting that I'll be gone, it just seems like an invitation to rob our house or something; so I am apologizing after the fact for disappearing for a couple of weeks.

It's good to be back.