Long Drives

We made it to and from Winnipeg with relative ease - considering we were driving with a dog and a toddler in the back. As previously reported, the drive to the Peg took us two days. The drive home only took one day... 23 hours of driving! Robin wanted to push straight through and then relax at home during the weekend.

Leaving at 11:30pm on Thursday, we hope Abi would sleep much of the way, but she woke around 5:30am on Friday and napped little. We returned home at 11:30pm local (lost an hour) time. On the return drive, the DVD player saw much more usage.

Even still, I think Abi and Darla did remarkably well with few complaints from either of them. Sometimes they are like siblings in the back. Well, at least on Abi's part: "Darla won't move!" (as if she can go anywhere); "Darla won't let me [extend my arm all the way into her little corner of the car]".


Robin did most of the driving. I think he was sustained by the beef jerky from Miller's.


I kept busy with my knitting...

... which I finished.

Abi was happy to see George and Fenwick when we got home. This afternoon, while she was supposed to take a nap, she cuddled with George and took this photo of him for us. Poor George...

The Long Drive

We made it! Two days in the car with Abi and Darla in the back seat were relatively uneventful - thankfully. We hit the road at 3am on Wednesday. Made it all the way to Sarnia by 8am where we gassed up and Abi half awoke. She napped a little more after, I think. It's somewhat all a blurred memory of driving and more driving. I do remember she puked around 10:30am when I gave her a piece of cheese to eat. It seems the dairy did not mix well with motion. One bite and we were having to pull over to clean her up. So much for packing her favourite snacks of cheese and yogurt for the trip. Lesson learned. (She doesn't normally throw up with diary and I did have other foods.) I had packed a variety of little toys, books, lacing cards/beads, and paper with markers. The last item proved the most entertaining for her. After drawing a couple lines on a couple pieces of paper and declaring them "perfect" and done, she took to another canvas - herself. She started before I noticed, and well, they were washable markers and it kept her entertained for HOURS. By the time we reached Thunder Bay she had multiple layers of colours, many smudged and half washed away by a day in a hot car. Her face, arms, legs, and feet were all adorned. After she puked she rode in just a diaper (just in case), so her torso was also decorated. On our next stop I put on her rainbow tie-dyed dress. It seemed the most appropriate and almost camouflaged the marker on her body. It wasn't until near the end of our drive that we had to whip out the portable DVD player we had borrowed. And, really, with 15 hours on the road, I think Abi was extremely well behaved.
We made it to Thunder Bay by 6pm, much earlier than anticipated. There we had dinner and spent the night with friends in their lovely lakeside home.
We departed the next morning at 10am with a full belly thanks to our wonderful hosts (and some tasty blueberry muffins for the road). The rest of the drive was even less eventful (no puking) and still only required the DVD player at the last hour as we slowed down through Winnipeg construction. We arrived in Winnipeg at 4:30pm local time. I should add that we were "greeted" in Manitoba by a wall of water. The clouds were a welcome reprieve, but the volume of rain was excessive. Literally, we crossed the border, read the sign declaring "Welcome to Manitoba" and then hit the wall. "Welcome" indeed.

I did a lot of knitting, as I'm sure you can imagine. (And I did drive... for about 2 hours.) At first I was working on my new shawl using naturally dyed lace yarn from Waterloo Wools. It was coming along fabulously, until I hit part 3 of the pattern and realized that I'd continued part two the same as part one... in short, I'd knit 18 rows of lace wrong. Argh! I had to switch to finishing my Belated Birthday socks so that I could get them off the needles so that I can use those needles to pick up the last correctly-knit row and frog back. The socks were finished just before our arrival. Incidentally, the socks took longer than I thought. It seems I underestimate projects as often as I overestimate others.
Photos to follow eventually. Abi's growing very impatient with me... she's about to try grapefruit with Robin because she was certain it was an orange (which she loves). The verdict is... must be pretty good. I don't hear "yucky".

Good Dog

I often forget how good-natured Darla is. She's not a guard-dog, that's for sure. She doesn't bark outside (unlike the other neighbourhood dogs who are CONSTANTLY barking for hours...), she doesn't run away (even if she breaks free of her ties), she doesn't jump up on people (usually; it's rare when she does and only with certain friendly people we know).

I was reminded of her good nature the other day as the meter-reader was walking through the neighbourhood. After checking our meter at the side of the house, he proceeded to stroll across our front yard. I was on the front step, in the shade, reading (Kids in Context: The Sociological Study of Children and Childhoods - Boocock and Scott) while Darla was relaxing in the shady bushes next to me. He was midway across when Darla trotted out to greet/sniff him. Clearly, with his job, he is accustomed to greeting dogs and had his hand ready. She didn't bark, or jump and she certainly didn't attack the stranger in her yard.
Yep, we have a good dog. Good enough that I can forgive that she doesn't give me any space (who does in this house?!) and has separation anxiety.

Look at how well she gets along with the cats.

And here she is a willing subject for one of Abi's photoshoots. She's also frequently the recipient of squishy-hugs from Abi. And disciplining by Abi: "No Darla!" "Darla, sit" "Stay!" "Don't eat my pancake Darla!" (too late)

She manages to find her way into many photos - often by walking in front of the camera just as the picture is being taken.
Who else would keep my feet warm under the desk so diligently? Or constantly be in my way? Or manage to stick her nose into my foot's pathway behind me as I'm walking and then make me feel guilty that I thwack her because I don't have eyes at the back of my head. (Nope, I don't)

Darla doesn't receive enough recognition for being so fabulous - so I dedicate this post to her :)

I'm also trying to generate "good dog energy" for our drive to Winnipeg with her and Abi in the back of our Corolla...

Wedding Social Prizes

I did it. I finished the wedding social prizes. Two fairly quick knits. The wrist warmers were mostly knit during a doctor appointment. The heavier wrap was not portable, but was an easy project on hand at my desk while waiting for downloads, etc.
I haven't finished the wedding gift afghan yet, but I'm confident I can complete it during the 2 (or 3?) day drive to Winnipeg. That is, I can finish crocheting squares and cross-stitching the butterflies. I'll assemble it in Winnipeg. (I think I can, I think I can....)


Here is the wrap in thick yarn. Not a summer day wrap! It was quick and easy, but does need a sweater or shawl pin of some kind to hold it on (not included). I used a sarong holder with a long hairpin through the holes (since I don't have a sweater or shawl pin either).


And here are the wrist warmers (that were going to be mine, but I'm willing to donate them and I may have just enough yarn left to make a second pair.) This was my first knit project involving beads (which you might not be able to see in the photo). The yarn is a yummy alpaca, merino, silk blend (with some nylon for strength as it is a sock yarn). A treat for any wrist.

So 'Peggers, I hope to see you at the social.

Limpy and Lumpy

I may have to rename the cats Limpy and Lumpy. Fenwick has a benign cyst on the top of her head about the size of a shirt button, so I've been calling her Lumpy. George injured his back left paw, so I think I'll call him Limpy now.
George's injury was quite frightful-seeming yesterday morning. I brought him to the vet (45 minutes away. It was a day of taxi-ing people and animals around because of potential thunderstorms.) because we feared the worst when he wouldn't put weight on the leg. He would still limp around and I could touch the leg. Vet assumed it was his hip - either fractured or dislocated. After x-rays revealed that there is nothing wrong with his hips or legs, she noticed his ankle area was swollen. The ankle could only barely be seen on the x-ray (since they weren't aiming there), but she thought she could see the problem. The good news is it doesn't require $1000 surgery. I only wish she'd noticed his ankle was swollen before putting him through the x-ray (and required IV to keep him from moving). That explains why she couldn't feel any problems when moving his hip joint and why he was relatively okay with it. Probably the worst for him was that she was holding on to his leg to do it and may have been moving his ankle in the process.
I will grant I'm not a vet nor am I in any way familiar with their process of checking for injuries, but in hindsight it seems to me that perhaps she should have tested for an ankle injury rather than assume from the start that it was his leg and only check that. :( Could have saved a lot of money.
While that heals, George/Limpy has to be confined to where he can't jump. Most of the time I have him in the downstairs bathroom with his own litterbox, bed, food and water. Took him out for some cuddles last night on the futon. Right now he's resting in our room for some variety. The only jumping he does regularly is to get to the food dishes and up/down stairs. For now he gets the royal treatment of being carried up and down.
Fenwick/Lumpy is going to have to live with her cyst for a little while. I'm going to try to remove it naturally with heat packs, as recommended with the human equivalent. But who wants to be dealing with heat packs in this heat? It's not dangerous or anything. The worst of it is that it looks ick to me - but it's not pussy or anything really gross. Just a lump. The other solution is surgery to remove the cyst, but we'd of course like to avoid that.

Spirits of the Earth

Abi and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend camping at the Spirits of the Earth festival just south of London, ON.
On Friday night we partook of the Medieval Feast and Bardic Competition. I was going to sing a song, but I also knew Abi would want to stay close as we'd only arrived on site recently. I suggested she might sing a song with me. Much to my surprise, she did! With a little help from the large tiger she wanted to pet, she and I sang Row Your Boat and Abi finished the song all by herself. Abi was rewarded with MardiGras necklaces - much to her delight. (As you can see, Abi and I didn't dress up this year. I entirely forgot to bring appropriate dress-up clothes. Abi at least had her Fairy Princess t-shirt on, complete with wings on the back. I wore my dragon scales shawl.)

Saturday was another hot day (common lately!) and we hid in the shade as much as possible. We only attended two workshops: the children's Maypole Dance and the Women's Ritual. We enjoyed both and I was pleased with Abi's good behaviour at the ritual, especially considering it was mid-afternoon and Abi did not nap. That night, however, she crashed hard. Earlier in the day she had made fast friends with another girl about 6 months younger. They both fell asleep around the ritual fire during the Dragon Ritual Drummers' performance. Abi crashed immediately, while her friend enjoyed dancing with her mom. As you can see, they were quite adorable. Of course they had to be posed with some local wildlife for dramatic effect. (There is more story behind the animals, but it's really too long to relate. You had to have been there.)

Later that evening, Abi did wake. And nursed more. Then we danced a little around the edge of the fire in my attempt to help her fall back asleep. Then she puked all over me... I'm sure it was my own fault for bouncing with a half-asleep, recently-nursed baby. Then it was bed time.

All in all, we had a great weekend. It was also our first time camping in a tent trailer as we stayed with a friend. Considering we had just missed the downpour and the ground was wet, I was grateful to not have to set up my tent. Abi got two stone goddesses. She selected them from all the ones available. Initially she said one was for me, but she is trying to claim them both now. I imagine she'll vacillate. When we returned home I cleared off her altar (since I was the one who had cluttered it) and my own so we could each have our special place.

Now, if only I can clear off my desk. And office floor. And dining room table...

Folk Fest Cookies

These cookies are an awful lot like my oatmeal, chocolate chip, coconut cookies (to which we also tend to add seeds). This recipe comes courtesy of my sister-in-law, the wonderful Corey. I don't recall where she managed to get the recipe for the Folk Fest Cookies - the same recipe used by Tall Grass Prairie (if you live in Winnipeg, you really should visit here weekly at least!) when they were selling these at Folk Fest. I seem to recall the recipe was published somewhere free. (So I hope I'm not infringing on cookie copyrights. If so, I'll just change the base to MY cookie base and add seeds...)

Folk Fest Cookies:

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown flax seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
chocolate chips (as much or as little as you like)

Cream butter and sugars together. Add eggs, then vanilla, then water. Mix flour, baking soda, salt together and add to liquid mixture. Add {Corey forgot to add oats in the instructions. DOn't forget the oats}, flax seeds, then sunflower seeds, then coconut and chocolate chips. {Or whatever order. I just dump all that stuff into the batter and stir}. Chill for 30 minutes covered with saran wrap in the fridge. Measure out dough in heaping teaspoons onto a non-stick pan. Use a fork to gently press dough down (just enough to flatten the dough a bit) {I don't bother with that.} . Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. (While baking I will often stick the bowl back in the fridge to keep the dough cool and firm). {We like to use parchment paper to bake on.}

Corey has tried this one with margarine and butter and found that butter does make a really big difference to this recipe. The same is true of my similar recipe. Even so, I do often use margarine.

Easy modifications:
I always cut the sugar called for in cookies. That much sugar is rarely necessary. I just don't use full scoops - nothing very scientific in my measurements.
You could easily substitute maple syrup and remove the water if you were so inclined.
And I'm sure honey would work too for a healthier recipe.
I tend to use whatever seeds I have in my pantry. This batch included pumpkin seeds (which I pre-ground a little; or tried to), small black seeds (I forget... doubtful I would have bought poppy), and ground flax (because apparently I'm all out of flax seeds).
I substituted in a little bean flour. I find it helps keep the cookie from 'melting' when it bakes.
You could substitute carob chips or no chocolate at all. You know, if you wanted to...
And, of course, you could add crushed nuts, cut the coconut, etc.
Basically you can use whatever is in your pantry - assuming you stock things like seeds and nuts.

This recipe made almost 4 dozen cookies. But don't tell Robin that. Looked more like 3 dozen by the time he woke up. (JJish)

Published in a book

I can now say I have been published in a book.

Next time you visit I'll show you the photos of hats I knit featured in the book 1,000 Fabulous Knit Hats. I have 10 hats in it. You'll know mine because they either feature Abi or are witch hats (both in two cases).
It's a fun book and considering I got it at a reduced price as a contributor, I'm very happy with it. Reviews so far have been poor on Amazon, but that seems to be because a bunch of people who can't read actually expected the book to include 1000 patterns, despite the description.

To give an honest description, it's rather like a pretty scrapbook of 1000 projects. It's fun to flip through for inspiration, but it does have faults. I'm willing to overlook those only because I'm in it, as are several other local knitters. The project names are dull. The compiler should have solicited more interesting titles. She also should have included the name of the pattern in addition to the designer's name (provided by project submitters). Also, there are quite a few repetitive projects, mine included. After submitting the photos I never heard anything further until the book was published. I hadn't actually expected every photo to be included. I imagined she'd pick the ones that best suited the book/page. I also imagined I'd hear back about my submissions - for a title or such. I've heard some stories... but I'm not going to gossip here.

All in all, *I* like that a few of my projects were featured in a book. The next time someone asks me to knit them a hat, I'll hand over the book and tell them to choose a style. There is a lot of wonderful inspiration in the book. Clearly I need to knit more hats! It's a good thing Abi and I both love wearing hats.

Knitter in training

What do you think... how long until she's knitting her own socks?
So far she enjoys trying to help me and insists I let her knit too.

She's tried her hands at knitting on several occasions. Quite diligently I should add.
(How could I resist the above photo. Those needles always make me laugh.)

And look at the technique here! She's a born knitter! She holds the yarn and needles just as I do. Well, okay, that's to be expected, but she actually picked them up like this. She looks like a natural :)

And if I can get her knitting Nana's socks, there will be more time for me to work on other projects :P

(Abi did not actually knit any of the pieces above. I did help her make one stitch on the pink sweater, which of course I had to tighten when I got the project back from her.)

Fun in the Sun

It is HOT outside. Summer is in full swing around here.

After the excitement of Canada Day, we had a relaxed weekend. We did our best to stay cool. Sunday afternoon we lounged in a friend's small above-ground pool with the kids. Abi had a blast! She had two episodes of swallowing water down the wrong tube, and one experience of going fully under. She actually recovered faster from the full submersion and didn't seem to have breathed in any water that time. I thought she might want out of the pool at that point, but we had to drag her out later for dinner and she tried climbing back in on her own a few times. I just realized if I'm going to blog about it I should add a photo from yesterday.Today I had a visit from the by-law enforcement about my yard. I love my neighbours. I once again missed an opportunity to photograph the car parked beneath the no-parking sign in our front yard. Of course, he drives a regular car with no markings stating it has to do with by-law enforcement. Nevertheless, it's the principle of the matter! For some unknown reason he suspected my recently-cut front yard might have been the cause of the complaint. I highly doubt it since the front and side yards are always cut. No, I'm sure it's one of our back neighbours. He checked the backyard and said it was fine! HA!
We discussed the by-law requirements. Before he headed to the back I said I have a lot of herbs and yes, they grow tall and are currently in flower. Thus they are even taller than usual. After he returned and said it was fine and they'd close the 'case' (or whatever they call it) I told him about the difficulties we've had with that back, steep-sloped, south-facing yard which had previously been sod-over and of course the sod didn't take properly and I'm stuck with the aftermath of some previous owner's idiocy (not that I said the latter). That we are cultivating whatever will actually survive back there, especially thyme, just to keep the soil together and to restrain the undesirable plants.
He reiterated that the by-law requires growth to be no higher than 8" UNLESS it is something you planted. IE, something you WANT growing there. Thus, "weeds" and "tall grasses" should be kept short. I said that we do actually plant some wildflowers that will grow tall because they will survive.
Maybe I WANT the goldenrod. And while I don't like the burdock (what a PITA to try and cut down if it grows when you're not looking!) and I hate walking past thistles, I'm not going to remove every wild plant back there leaving a bare slope. I have been selectively sorting through the plants. Wild daisies can stay. Thistles I try to at least keep short if not removed. Goldenrod and milkweed and burdock I remove. Crown vetch I plant. Wildflowers I plant. Tall herbs that take over, I definitely plant - all hail the mints! My parsley is also great in that garden.
I'll make sure I whack the unwanted growth before we leave for Winnipeg this month.

Notice I have been referring to myself doing all this work... ahem.

I should have watched to see how exactly the guy approached the backyard to take a look. Instead I ran back upstairs to change glasses. I'm pretty sure he did not take the "secret passage" between the bushes. He either had to look from our back deck or the neighbour's yard.

*sigh* Regardless, I now feel obliged to go back there when the heat breaks I do further work. I also noticed, looking upon it today, that I should water it tonight.

Canada Day

Abi and I celebrated Canada Day by attending the local festivities hosted by the University of Waterloo. There were a lot of childrens activities and many of them free, except the dozen inflatable bouncy castles, slides, etc which were $3 a turn! Yowza. Good think Abi's scared of such things so far. She did get to make a bracelet with UV pony beads that turn colour in the sunlight. And she sampled ice cream made with "science" at one of the science booths. (I never did catch what exactly they were doing, but I guessed from the 'smoke' they were using dry ice somehow.) She also saw her friends Maxwell and Simon and was happy to see Chris and Akio (who she kept reminding me later about having seen).
We headed home for dinner to see Robin who'd been stuck at work. Turns out necessarily so as the team he just trained in Mexico was short-staffed due to a massive flooding in Monterray.
Abi and I headed out again in the evening for the 10pm fireworks. Met up with other friends and watched from a distance - although every possible viewing point, including where we were, was packed with people! Abi was not particularly impressed by the display. She was more interested in playing Ring Around the Rosey. She is accustomed to the sound of fireworks around here and is used to ignoring them. I had been warned that getting home after the fireworks is ridiculously slow, which is why we went to a further location. Even so, I knew it would still be near impossible to get directly home, so I opted to go to the NEXT major street and that was a wise choice. Almost no traffic all the way home. It was worth the slight detour!

Time to kick the kiddo out of bed. Alarm clock was ignored by her. (Mommy's girl)