Hot Damn! It's Here!

Actually, that should be, "Damn! It's Hot Here!" We've been suffering through a long, wet spring. Sure, we've had glimpses of sun, but remember just two weeks ago when we had snow? So, all of a sudden, Summer showed up. It was 80 degrees yesterday, and almost that warm today. This evening, we've got warm, humid, still air; in fact, ToolMan said that if we were still in the Midwest, we'd be listening for tornado sirens.

Andy Rooney hasn't been himself lately. ToolMan and I were attributing it to his age; he was 11 in January. That is, until last week, when he started wetting the carpet in the night. A trip to the vet's office revealed that he is diabetic. We've cut down the carbs he gets (of course, we had just bought a box of dog biscuits at Costco last week) and are watching him closely for now. We want to talk to the vet about alternatives to insulin, and possibly trying to control the diabetes by tightly controlling his diet. If he does have to get insulin, he'll have to spend a day at the vet's so they can test his blood sugar and determine the dosage of insulin he'll need.

I've been hauling my purse and a bag back and forth from the MAX stop downtown to my office since December, and it's given me a sore shoulder. I carry my purse (and no matter how much I take out, it seems to weigh more every day), and a big bag with my dress shoes, lunch, a knitting project or two, mp3 player, and whatever else I apparently can't live 10 hours without. I've been wanting a rolling bag to carry all my crap in so I can give my poor shoulders a break. ToolMan tried to discourage me because he said they're easy for someone to swipe out of my hand and take off.

I got a flyer from Joann's in the mail on Friday and they had several kinds marked 50% off. Most of them were either too big easily take on MAX or were too expensive. Then, I found this one in the "Kids Crafts" section:



I've got it all loaded up (except for lunch, of course) and ready to go. And ToolMan says the blue camo is so ugly, no one will steal it.

I also bought some Sulky Opalescent thread to ply with those singles from the bats that Barbara sent to me. This afternoon, I got them all plied up; I got about 360 yards of 3 ply (2 plies of fiber and 1 of the thread). Man, they were gorgeous in the afternoon sun! After plying, it wound it onto the reel and tied the leases. It was fairly twisty when I took it off, so it's getting a nice long soak to relax.



These are going in the mail to Barbara tomorrow, in exchange for that lovely bat she sent me:



A pair of custom-made cedar sock blockers in ladies' size 7 1/2. ToolMan says these are probably the last pair he'll make; there's a lot of sanding to make them and he's much more interested in making lazy kates and shawl pins in hardwoods right now.

Here's another little goodie I got at Joann's; a mini duffel bag. The perfect size for holding a sock project for the Yarn Harlot's book party next week. And, it was in the $1 bargain bin.



Oh, that black shawl I was going to cast on last week? Yeah, well there are pattern issues. Like, no chart and their stitch counts are way off. Not MY stitch count, mind you. Their stitch count doesn't jive with what the written instructions add up to. I tried three different times to make the pattern work, and then I gave up. When my enthusiasm returns for the pattern, I'll sit down and chart it out before starting again.

In the meantime, I pulled out the remains of the Bamboo 7 left over from the Bamboo Sweater From Hell and cast on for a leaf lace shawl.



At least I know it will fit me when I'm done.