Today

This morning J got settled in. I even gave him his own flat surface. (Okay, the picture and chocolates are mine, but I've offered to move them if he wants.)

Then we washed Mini:

J said, "isn't this where you lie across the hood?"

To be fair, I got one of him too:


I like this photo of J:

(He's *mine*, ladies!)

After a nice nap and some lunch, we went out for a romantic stroll through the cemetary:

(J's caption: We contemplated our future together.)

Since Winnipeg is the Slurpee capitol of the world, and it was hot...

Aren't his eyes gorgeous? Here's a close-up:

(Again, I've called "dibs".)

Tonight we watched "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" that H loaned me. Great movie! (May contain nuts.)

Wishing you had a happy day too!

Sock Update

M's socks are nearly done. I'd post a photo, but since they're so close, I'll wait until they're done.

Recent Excitement

I've been a bad blogger lately, not posting about all the fun stuff going on.

First up, happy feet are here to visit:


Someone in the next neighbourhood over appears to have a bit of a directional problem:

(Embiggen to see missing chunk of house, and tire tracks leading to the flattened shrubbery.)

I've got mail! From Straying Power I got an awesome needle roll with some fun pins:


(This is in return for the stitch marker thingies I sent her.)

And from Big Girl Feet I got this awesome card and goodies:


Lucky me!

On the downer side, it cost me $10 to send "Microwave Magic Poultry" to Regina. :P (That was one nice thing about the US... really cheap postage.)

Also, I'm facing up to the fact that I need to cut back on my bloglines subscriptions again. :( (My apologies to those I cut.)

Temari Balls

Temari Balls

These are temari balls. I learned how to make them when I was out at UBC, because a friend there wanted to learn, and was having trouble learning from a book.

I had previously finished the one on the upper left, but the rest were in intermediate stages, sitting in a plastic bag on my bookshelf. Since I'm dealing with stuff on my bookshelf, I decided to finish them off so I could put them "away away", rather than "ufo away." Last night I finished up the two on the right (the top right only needed a few more rounds, and the bottom right was about halfway done). The bottom left one needs a few more leaves.

I have two more, one that is still in "sock" stage, and one that is in "yarn wrapped sock" stage. I might take the "yarn wrapped sock" one to completion, but the one that's simply a rolled sock I'll probably toss.

When these are finished, I'll be adding them to my Christmas ornament collection. They're meant to be children's balls, but I don't want to see them get ratty. I don't need more "everyday decorations" collecting dust, and I think they'll be pretty on a tree.

Miscellany

Ow... I have bicycle butt. :P

I had a *very* strange dream last night. Science fiction strange. I can't remember enough details to explain it in a way that makes sense, but it definitely had a plot.

Happy Fourth

Happy 4th of July to all y'all folks south of the border. ;)

Riding Down Memory Lane

"Turn off your TV. Think for yourself."

Today mom, Bob and I rode our bikes down to the Forks and the Manitoba Legislature and back.

(Mom and Bob had helmet too, but had taken them off for our rest stop.)

At the Leg (pronounced "ledge"), there was an art show featuring northern and rural Manitoba artists, so we went in and browsed. Here's some of my favourites:





After looking at all the art, we noticed that a free tour of the Leg was about to start, so we joined. Here's a photo of the room where stuff happens:

I found it interesting that among the other art, there was a sculpture of Moses with the Ten Commandments. That would be a big no-no in the USA... although the Christians would love it.


On our way back along the riverwalk, I got a real blast from the past... Justin, who I went to grade school with. He recognized me right away, but I didn't recognize him until he took off his sunglasses. (Even then it took me a second... I'm slow, I guess, and he's changed some.) It's strange seeing people from grade school, now that they're no longer in grade school, and have families and real jobs and stuff like that. (Well, the others do... still working at getting out of school...) Somehow I remember them how they were, and forget just how many years have passed.

After lunch I had a nap... biking in the morning really wore me out!

(aside: it's really getting late, so here's the rest of this post in short form.)

After nap, did some gardening, including the remaining planting:

and massacring pruning a shrub:


More on these tomorrow:

Catching Up

Last week as I was catching up on the Mason-Dixon knitting blog, I found their post linking to the fun Websites as Graphs page. Well, I immediately had to try it out:

I noticed that if I went to a different tab in the browser and then returned, that the graph didn't keep going. I was curious: How big would it get if I let it run? If I ran it multiple times, would the image be the same? (Answer: similar, but not identical... there's some random numbers used in placing the vertices.) What did the colours mean? (I never did figure this one out, but I'm guessing it either has to do with connectivity, or with common domain names grouped by colour. The colours are consistent.)

Well, here's the results of my playing. Some of these are snapshots taken at different times in the run, some are separate runs, and the last is one where it looked like the applet had pretty much stopped:





If you want to see how other people's web pages compare, check out the Flickr tag page. Or, try out the site on your own page. :)

Whirlwind

Last night when it was time to go to bed, my room once again looked like a whirlwind had struck. However, I made lots of progress yesterday. I changed all the adjustable shelves on my bookshelf so that they're now permanent and set at heights I want, the top two for paperbacks, the next two for craft books, and added a little shelf for cds. (Chunk o' wood courtesy dad.) Then I put all the books back on the shelf, emptied three boxes, and hung 14 pictures on the wall. (They're a little "cluttered," but being stored there will be safer for them than in the garage.) In addition to all that, I did all my laundry yesterday. Yay me!

This morning I brought in the box with my hair clippers and trimmed my hair. However, the 1" guide wasn't in the clipper case, so I had to use the 7/8" guide. I didn't get one spot good enough, so I'll reattack that the next time I have a shower. (I can't stand all the little prickly hairs the clippers leave behind.)

After lunch mom and I went shopping. I bought three pairs of shorts... more money than I should be spending right now (~$90), but I could really do with a few more pairs. In fact, earlier this week I had to ask mom to put a pair in with her laundry in order to make it to laundry day. I had five pair, but only one was suitable for wearing multiple days before washing. (And I stupidly wore them last week while making the bookshelf: they got *covered* in sawdust!) Two of the pairs I bought today should also survive multiple wearings, plus they bring the total up to eight.

In other news, I found this recipe book while I was reorganizing my room:

See the title? "Microwave Magic Poultry"... it disturbes me. A friend from high school gave it to me way back when. I've never tried making anything from it. Looking at it yesterday, it occurred to me that this is something that probably belongs in the files of the amazing Lady Linoleum... I'll have to ask her if she wants it.

Happy Canada Day!

Turtle

Turtle and George wish you a happy Canada Day!