Saturday in the Park

Nate the Wonder Geek determined our old computer could not be resuscitated.  Instead, he brought us a whole new brain.  Now, I can try to wade through all the posts I had ready and waiting, complete with pictures. 

First up:  Babies and Birthdays, Cake and Presents: 

Last Saturday; no wait, it was Saturday before last; ToolMan and I were at a very special Saturday In The Park.  I was somebody's first birthday!  Can you guess who?  Here, I'll give you a hint:

It was Trtlbby!  Her momma, Rachel, is a PDX Knit Blogger and a Portland Spinnerati, and when Trtlbby was born, ToolMan and I instantly became Hazel Nuts.  Ha, I crack me up sometimes. 

Here's the birthday girl herself, getting ready to play in the sprinkler fountains.

Already learning to pose and smile for the camera!  She had a great time in the fountains with the other kids.

"Hmm, where's this water coming from?"

"Are you still back there, Dad?"

"Maybe I can ditch Dad and go play with the big kids."

And she had some little friends come share the special day.  William is stylin' with his new hat.

Connor really dug the chips and bean dip.  Aren't you glad you don't have to change those diapers?

Her little guests are both boys; Dad may need better locks on the doors in a few years.  ;)

Pretty soon, it was time for cake!

"I think this is my new favorite food!"

"I wish they'd let me have a fork!"

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"

And then, the madness that is opening the presents.  Fortunately, or maybe not, the big kids were glad to help rip open wrapping paper.

"I hope I can get this tiara from Auntie Tiggywinkle and Uncle ToolMan resized to fit."

"Oh, thank goodness I got lots of clothes; I really can't wear the same outfit to multiple events, you know."

"Yeah, you think it's really cool, but frankly my dear, I no longer give a hoot."

After a couple hours, everybody was ready to head for home.  I don't know who was more tired:  the little ones were tired from playing and missing their afternoon naps, or the adults from watching the little ones play and miss their afternoon naps.  It's been a great many years since ToolMan and I had been to a first birthday party, and we were pretty worn out, too!  

Happy Birthday, Trtlbby!  ToolMan and I hope you have LOTS and LOTS of them, and that we get to share them with you! 

Blah, blah blah, blah, blah.

I have some great posts about knitting and spinning, brothers and hats, babies and birthdays, cake and presents, garter stitch and blankies, new friends and grand openings, warm weather and blue skies, unicorns and sparkles, and lots and lots of pictures.  Except I can't put them up because our computer is sick.  And it's not because the closet is full of blue shirts, either.  However, it hasn't quite turned into a brick like it did last time, either.  It apparently has a very, very bad brain infection and quite possibly an intestinal parasite.  Tomorrow, Nate The Wonder Geek will see if it can be immunized and resurrected, or if it needs a central nervous system transplant.  As soon as he works whatever magic it is that he does, I'll get those posts up.  

Just kidding about the unicorns and sparkles thing; I made up that part.  I wish the rest of it was made up, too.

Talk to me!

Recently, I've gotten some emails that people were having a problem leaving Comments, so I made some changes to the settings, which should make it easier. If it's still giving you fits, send me an email at bobbie_wallace AT comcast DOT net.

We're baaack . . . . .

Our 'puter got really, really sick almost immediately after my last post.

And I don't mean that just the closet was full of blue shirts, because when we bought this thing back in January, we purchased it with a virtual walk-in cedar closet of storage space. Besides, if there was simply no room left in the closet, then I know how to take out blue shirts, fold them very tightly, and add some red shirts so everything would be hunky dory. Oh NOOOOO, it wasn't that easy.

Our computer, for which we paid mucho dinero in January, came complete with 40 gigabyte hard drive, wide screen LCD monitor, DVD burner, special sound and video cards, capable of connecting directly to cable to record movies for viewing later, and with a whole house wireless network. A machine, that was, up until Tuesday, screaming fast, suddenly turned into a brick.



Just like what happened to Stephanie, when you turned it on you got the pretty wallpaper. And nothing else. No icons. No START button. No pretty harmonic music. Nothing. Hit CTRL + ALT + Delete. Nothing. No little Task Manager Window. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

So, who do you call? That's right; Ghostbusters! Same guys who came delivered this baby and attached it's little umbilical cords to the Internet, cable, and big screen television. Can they come fix it? Sure they can. On Thursday. That's right, two days of no Internet, no email, no resumes being sent out, no blogs, no pictures moving from camera to storage. Nothing.



Andy Rooney was completely bummed that he couldn't get to his Internet Texas Hold 'Em and chat with his favorite West Highland Terrier, Moxie.

I however, was very productive. It's amazing how much you can get done with no computer to distract you.



Yep, a SECOND skein of that navy heather roving from Woodland Woolworks. I did this on the Ashford Traveller borrowed from Chrispy.

While I was at OFFF last Saturday, ToolMan worked on the wheel that Barbara brought up from Arizona for me. She got a nice two day marination in mineral oil, some nice paste wax, a little massage with a rubber mallet to tighten up her joints, and a nice new drive string.



Isn't she pretty? It's a Country Craftsman double drive, and she spins like a dream for me. First thing we tried was some of that Dragon Waste from OFFF. Just look:



I used all I had of the purple, magenta, pink roving. I didn't buy much of it because those really aren't my favorite colors and just wanted them to get used to the new wheel. Now I wish I'd gotten more of all three colors. I did one single starting with the purple, then when it was used up I moved onto the magenta, then progressively lighter through all the pinks. And plied it with a white single.

Here's a closeup of my very first real yarns, with a penny for perspective:



Not great, but not bad. This could be very addictive. Especially when there's no computer to distract you.

Yesterday, the Ghostbuster guy came to fix our computer. He was only here for about 30 minutes. No, he didn't fix it; he said it was too far gone for him. Whereupon, I retired to my sick bed.

"But," he told ToolMan, "I do know someone who can."

Two hours later, I wake up and walk downstairs to find this in our family room:



A young, hunky guy who can fix computers. And, apparently, televisions. This is Nate Montierth. Nate is the owner of Tekology. Nate, however, has no website. If you're in the Portland Metro area and need a computer doctor, Nate's your man. You can get in touch with him at nate@tekology.biz.

Nate put on new, gold cables from the cable box to the television and tweaked up the settings for high def. Nate is a tech guy.



Then he went to work on the computer. Not only did he save all the pictures, resumes, knitting patterns, and ephemera from the hard drive, but he upgraded the wireless modem, took off a bunch of junk programs we don't use, and set up better virus and spy ware protection. Nate is a geek.

He also pretended to be interested in spinning wheels and knitting. Nate is a FREAKIN' GENIUS!