Saturday, June 23, 2007

Belated Happy Summer Solstice

A belated Happy Summer Solstice to each of you! I lived in Alaska for 7.5 years and Summer Solstice was always celebrated there. Here, even in MN, it seems to go mostly unnoticed. I love the long summer evenings.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Some things in my work life became all consuming. Nothing has changed - yet, but I finally figured out my options and that's made a big difference. I hope to have some news soon.

Knitting News


The green traveling shells cardigan is coming along. I think I would have made more progress but for the work thing which has kept me so preoccupied. I've knit to the arm holes and have started working on the left side. I'm behind my goal for completing this, but that's OK. Knitting is a hobby after all. I'm suffering badly from "start-itis". I so want to start a new project but I am going to finish this first before I move on to something new. My new goal is to have the cardigan completed before my mom goes back to AZ for the winter.

Bird News

I woke up early today with a busy Saturday in front of me. However, instead of diving right into my many chores, I was seriously distracted by the tree swallow babies who left the nest this morning between 6:00-6:30 a.m.. So much fun to watch! The phrase "it takes a village" is certainly true for tree swallows. Besides the parents, a whole flock of swallows flew around the nesting box encouraging the baby birds to get out and try their wings. Three of the four were out of the nest by 6:30 a.m. but one lone baby stayed in the nest for another 12 hours. I was starting to get a bit worried, wondering what to do with a tree swallow who either couldn't or wouldn't fly. But fly the bird did this evening!

The 5 blue birds are still in their nest. I have not opened the nesting box but I've peeked in and can see their blue feathers. I expect them to fledge any day now. Both parents are very busy feeding their youngsters.

I also have a noisy brood of house wrens in a bird house very close to my bedroom windows. (I won't make that mistake next spring!) These babies too look very close to fledging. Soon I hope my cat can become an indoor/outdoor cat again. He's driving me crazy!

Dog News

Shamrock tried for her PT herding title this past Friday without success. She's off to a good start here but she and I hit a snag in the course later on. As the judge wrote on her critique, Shammie needs more schooling. And so do I! We'll get there, we'll keep on practicing and training and try again this fall. It was a nice day to get out with just Shamrock and for the two of us to enjoy each other's company without all the other dogs around.

We went to a show in IA last weekend. It was blistering hot. Addie managed a Best Of Breed one of the days and Dak managed to lie down on the long sit both of the days, thus disqualifying himself after racking up some very nice heeling scores. Yeesh! You can bet I've been practicing the long sit with Dak both at home and in several classes.

Very Sad News


The dryer tried to eat one of my pink tennis shoes and it was irreparably damaged. Bummer! I did love those pink shoes.

Here's the pair of boring blue shoes to replace the pink ones.

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Sunday, June 10, 2007

It Was A Good Weekend

A Thousand Splendid Suns

What an exquisite, sad, powerful, poignant novel. I do not know the correct words to describe this beautiful book. I can't stop thinking about it. I kept the iPod playing in the car or in my ears as much as I could this weekend. How magnificent is the human spirit to endure such sorrow and hardship. When I thought Mariam and Laila could not possibly survive another tragedy, I learned they not only can endure, but are brave enough to dare to hope and love again.

I wonder if the author has ever read one of my favorite pieces of literature, William Faulkner's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech? I think they both speak magnificently of the courage and power of the human spirit.


A New Champion



Addie finished her championship this weekend by winning the final of 15 required points. Addie is co-owned by my friend Sarah in IL and has been tag teamed to her championship by both Sarah and I. Addie makes up my 21st champion. Above is a casual picture of Addie taken while playing around the house. Addie lives here part time while attending some shows and, unlike my own dogs, does not tear a toy to shreds as soon as she gets. Rather, Addie will actually play with a toy. She's playing here with an expensive toy I wouldn't think of giving to my own dogs as they'd wreck it as soon as they got a hold of it. When Addie leaves I put the expensive toy away and only bring it out again when Addie returns.



Yep, that's Addie again just after we arrived home from the show. Why yes, that is a piece of grass between her teeth! Shows dogs are just 'plain old dogs' at home. Addie doesn't seem to know she's anything special in this photo does she?

Five baby bluebirds!

The bluebird eggs hatched on Saturday. All five little birds are alive and parents busy feeding them. I check on them daily and will continue to do so for about another 10 days. After that it's time to leave the babies alone so they do not fledge too early. I wanted to take a picture for you but didn't dare disturb them so you will have to take my word for it. I will try to get pictures when the birds leave the nest. Can't wait - I will finally be able to let my cat outside - Hurray!

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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Do Not Knit When You Are Tired

I learned this lesson over the past weekend. I took my parents out to eat at Fermentations this past Saturday night. We had a very nice time. The ostrich and halibut were quite good, the chicken was just ok. Still, we had a wonderful time. I arrived home late and had to let the dogs outside to exercise before going to bed so I decided to knit a row of the traveling shells cardigan while I waited for the dogs. Oh, was that a mistake. I knew I was tired and had enjoyed a few glasses of wine but at the time I thought I was just whipping through a row of knitting. Was I wrong! It took me a little less than 1 and 1/2 hours on Sunday morning to repair all the damage I'd done. So take my advice, don't knit when you are tired or have had a glass of wine or two.

I'm happy with the progress I am making on the traveling shells cardigan but I won't bore you with pictures. We are having a big family reunion at the end of June and I had hoped to have the cardigan completed by then but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. I'd love to start another project, like socks, but I am determined to finish this first.

I'm in love with my iPod Nano and have been for some time. I have managed to move almost all of my CD collection to my iPod. I have about a dozen CDs left to copy. Recently I went looking for audio books for the iPod. I've listened to all of the audio books available at my local library I care to listen to, and a few I didn't. I love to read "real" books but have found audio books the perfect substitute for times I also want to knit or am driving to dog events, driving to dog lessons, to work, etc.. I spend a lot of time in my car.

I wasn't happy with the iTunes book selection. Almost all of the books I wanted to read were abridged and I think reading an abridged version of anything is just wrong! Over the weekend I discovered audible.com and quickly signed myself up. I downloaded and have already listened to the two most recent Micheal Connelly books. I'm a huge Harry Bosch fan. He's such an imperfect hero, he's hard not to love. Aren't we all imperfect heroes?


Now that I'm all caught up with Harry Bosch, I have down loaded the latest Einstein biography. I've been wanting to read this but the only version available on iTunes was an abridged version. I'm excited to have the unabridged version to read.


And I also downloaded Khaled Hosseini's latest, A Thousand Splendid Suns. I've read his first novel, The Kite Runner, and enjoyed it very much so I'm looking forward to 'reading' his latest via my iPod.

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