Year: 2007

A Perfect Afternoon

Sarah Carolyn, Dogs

It was a lovely, breezy 72 degrees this afternoon, so I took Carrie and the dogs out on the deck. Carrie and I sat for a bit on the swing while I knit and she ate animal crackers. She guessed I was knitting a glove (a reasonable guess, since it’s just the cuff of a sock so far) and then decided that it was a sock. Then Carrie played with her sand table, the dogs ran around and I knit for the better part of an hour. Oh, and Carrie and Murphy got in some serious cuddle time:

20070622_murphyandcarrie.jpg

20070622_molly.jpg

I hope the whole summer can be as perfect as this afternoon.

Addicted.

Sarah Spinning

This past Saturday, my mom and I went to the spinning guild meeting. I have to confess, after all of the excitement of learning how to spin, discovering that the spinning guild meets in my town and being given a wheel of my own, spinning kind of fell off the map in terms of my hobbies.

I think I may have figured out why – well, aside from the fact that in the intervening years I’ve had a small person take up a lot of my time. I wasn’t spinning the right kind of stuff. Everyone says to start with Blue Face Leicester, because it has such a long staple length and it’s really easy to spin. I bought some (OK, a lot) and didn’t like spinning it.

pink_homespun_1.jpg

On the other hand, I seem to have no problem with shorter staple lengths – like this absolutely scrumptious shetland/alpaca blend I bought at the guild meeting. Those four ounces you see on that bobbin there? I had spun it all between Saturday afternoon and Monday evening. I’d estimate there are maybe three hours of spinning on that bobbin, and it’s (relatively) even.

I just wrote a check to drop in the mail to the seller so she could send me the second four ounce ball of this roving she had in her basket. I’m planning to ply them and knit something for Carrie – maybe a new hat and scarf for winter? Eight ounces of worsted-ish ought to be plenty for those and maybe an extra hat or two to donate, right?

Sleeeeep. Neeeed Sleeeeep.

Sarah General

I am just a zombie today. I went to bed at midnight, and then Carrie woke me up at 12:30 (she said she fell out of bed, but I didn’t hear a “thump”), 1:30 (her toe hurt), 3:30 (she needed a new bandaid, because the one I gave her at 1:30 had fallen off) and 4:30 (she wanted to snuggle). At which point I begged Denis to take over and he brought Carrie into bed with us. I don’t sleep very soundly when she’s in our bed, because I’m usually the one getting kicked, elbowed, poked, etc. Then when he tried to transfer her back to her bed at 7:00 she woke up screaming for me. It’s nice to be loved and all, but still…

At least I managed to talk her into sleeping for a bit longer so she’d have the energy to play all day, but then I couldn’t go back to sleep. Now it’s 4:00, and I’ve given up on trying to get her to take a nap – which means I didn’t get a nap either. I have no idea how we’re going to survive the birthday party we’re going to this evening.

Summer Concert

Sarah Music

Well, I guess technically it’s not summer yet, but we had our final concert of the season this evening. This is the one we always try to do in a local park, but usually it’s raining. Tonight, however, the weather was perfect. It was a great way to wrap up the season.

I’m a little sad, because the director – who’s been with the community band since the beginning seven years ago – is stepping down. I’ve only been with the band for four years, but he was also one of the band directors in my high school, so I’ve known him for a while. It will be very hard for someone to take his place!

Slartibartfast

Sarah Carolyn

We went out to dinner with Lisa & family tonight, and at one point the conversation turned to silly names. Denis said his name was “Slartibartfast“, and the three kids started laughing as though that was the funniest thing ever. I’m sure the rest of the restaurant didn’t really appreciate the giggling, but I certainly did.

What was even funnier was on the way home, Carrie decided that we had to sing the “Slartibartfast” song, where she just repeated the word over and over to a made up melody. Or, well, tried to. It’s a hard word to pronounce, after all…

Carrie’s First Sit & Knit

Sarah Firsts

OK, so Carrie has actually come to the real Sit & Knit several times in her life already. But that was as a passive (well, sometimes active!) observer.

Today we went to my grandparents house to celebrate both my brother and my cousin graduation from various levels of college. Their house has a great big wrap-around porch and is situated in the woods. It’s a very lovely place to sit and chat and knit. My mom and I were both working away on socks when Carrie announced that she wanted to knit too.

So my mom pulled out an extra skein of sock yarn (I’d laugh except I actually had two extra projects with me just in case – for a total of 4 hours riding in the car and a 6 hour afternoon at the house) and showed Carrie how to finger crochet.

20070610_yarn.jpg

Those little fingers were pretty good at finger crocheting! I’m thinking one of those chunky plastic crochet hooks and some nice smooth worsted weight wool next…

Sick Kiddo Update

Sarah Carolyn

OK, so not roseola. Coxsackie virus, which sounds like something hideously awful, doesn’t it? But Carrie’s fever is lower today, and aside from her throat hurting (apparently apple juice fixes that right up) is in better spirits today…

…and is currently napping!

Considering I’ve gotten maybe 8 hours of sleep over the past two nights, I’m thrilled with this development. Unfortunately, I’ve never been a good napper, so I’m just going to go veg and knit instead. Almost as good as sleep, right??

Sick Kiddo

Sarah Carolyn

My poor little munchkin has had a pretty high (102°-103°) fever since yesterday afternoon. The nurse at her pediatrician’s office agrees with my guess that it could be roseola, although we won’t know for sure until a couple days from now if she breaks out in a rash.

We’ve been watching TV all morning. Mostly because I was up half the night with her and we’re both exhausted. I have to find a way to keep her temperature under control a little better overnight tonight. The poor baby woke up hot and uncomfortable, a whole hour before I could give her more Motrin. As much as I hate being sick myself, I really hate having to watch Carrie being sick.

Couch to 5K

Sarah Fitness

I think I must be completely insane, but I decided to start a running program. I found some podcasts for the couch to 5K program, loaded up the first week on my ipod, and hit the gym this morning. I think it will probably take me more than the nine weeks to complete it though, because I couldn’t really run for the full 60 seconds for all eight intervals for this beginning week. Maybe I’ll count this as week 0.5 and do week 1 again next week?

Anyway, I managed to survive it, so that’s encouraging. I’m tentatively thinking that instead of walking in this years’ Barktober Fest, if I can really manage to stick with this program, maybe I’ll be able to do the 5K run. Oops, I just realized it says 5 miles NOT 5 kilometers…maybe I could still work up to that?

Yep. That proves it. I’m insane. What on earth am I thinking?!?