Tuesday Project Roundup: Something I Will Actually Wear

Last weekend I finished the green sweater I've been working on for over a month (see the progress shot here) and I've already worn it twice--success! (The success is even sweeter because my latest sewing project is not working.) I really could have used another skein of yarn to make the body longer, but by the time I realized that, I didn't want to wait for another one to arrive, so I made do.

Like all cardigans, it can be worn open:

Or closed:

With the sewing project not working and this project finished, I've been wandering around with no focus in the evenings. Poor Mr. Isbell just wants me to "sit down and watch the movie," and I think Toby does too. Fortunately for them both, I found half of a sock I never finished last year. So tonight should be a calm one Chez Craft.

Things I Forgot To Mention Friday

1. Talk Like a Pirate Day, of course, but that was pointed out.

2. My brother's birthday Saturday. He got to eat beef and quote lots of Family Guy. And he has an even BIGGER lawn tractor (so big that he likes to drop "lawn" and just say "tractor"), so I think he's pretty happy.

3. Friday was the anniversary of when Keats wrote his ode, "To Autumn" in 1819. You can read it here.

And today is the equinox. I guess summer is now officially over.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I think I need to remind myself not to panic about the market crash this week. Or about anything else. (I tend to panic.)

2. Although if society does dissolve into anarchy, we can welcome our new feathered overlords: I read this week that crows "seem to be able to use causal reasoning to solve a problem"--something that even chimps aren't able to do.

3. And speaking of human traits in animals, Toby is doing his best to take over my side of the bed:

These Are Trying Times

Sometimes, I think ahead about 50 years and realize, "I'm going to be one of those grandmas that kids are going to want to interview for their history projects."

Consider: I will remember a time without cell phones and the internet. I'll remember 9/11 and the mess we made of the Iraq War. (God, I hope I can finally use the past tense on that in another 50 years.) I'll remember the Dark Times (the Bush years--now with more spying and torture!) and the historic Hilary and Obama campaigns.

And it looks like I'm going to remember the Great Financial Crash of Wall Street in '08. Nothing like some reports of global market panic with your coffee! This is bad, people. Maybe not the time to ask for a raise at work.

And I'm One Of Them

The newspaper tells me that today marks the signing of a charter in 1787 that established the Federal government. The article also gave some harrowing statistics about Americans:

• 28 percent know more than one of the five fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment: the freedoms of religion and speech; of the press; to assemble peaceably; and to petition for redress of grievances.
• 1 in 1,000 can name all five.
• 20 percent think the First Amendment guarantees the right to own a pet.
• Yet 52 percent of Americans can name at least two main characters in "The Simpsons" television show, and 22 percent can name all five (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie).

There's a quiz you can take, too. I took it and, well, my next trip to the library should include some history to brush up on.

But at least I was never stupid enough to think Bush was doing a good job!

Tuesday Project Roundup: Running Away To Join The Fair Edition

I picked up my fair entries yesterday evening and thought I'd take a picture, since I never searched the archives to find the original project posts. I submitted the very plaid dress I made last November for a friend's wedding--first place--and the houndstooth jacket I like so much--second place. Yay, me!


When I was there last night the semis that carry the collapsible midway rides were all packed up and ready to head out in a convoy. My fascination with long-haul trucking (don't know where that came from, unless it's Kerouac) collided with my curiosity about how traveling midway ride operators must live, and I just about put the Focus in line behind them. Maybe someday I can take six months and research a book about carnies and their state fair circuit...

Weekend Events

As I mentioned, there was a demolition derby at the State Fair this weekend. The symphony also opened its season with Beethoven's 9th. I didn't attend either of these events, though. Why?

Because Mr. Isbell had a birthday party...
and I had a big bowl of punch!

Happy birthday, hon!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Did you hear that Lance Armstrong is coming out of retirement to try for a record eighth win at the Tour de France next summer? He's riding for free--he wants to raise cancer awareness--and he's letting a documentary film crew follow his training, to put to rest any doping rumors. Go Lance!

2. In other news, but of the infuriating and scary kind, did you see the Sarah Palin ABC interview? Choice quotes on the ABC site.

3. My book this week is Annie Proulx's Wyoming Stories, short stories that remind you that ranch life is not at all like My Friend Flicka, but instead "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

4. Those middle items are depressing. Here's Toby being sleepy to cheer us up:

Farm Week Continues!

Look what was in the paper this morning--an article about pack goats! It includes this sentence:
"All goats, Zimmerman says, love fire and hate water. Around campfires, they get as close as they can to the flames, and will often stand right in front of people--so they can be near two of their favorite things."

And here's the accompanying picture--I saw this guy at the fair last Friday, but my camera had died:

Fantasy Farm Week

Continuing the agrarian dream here on the blog this week, check out this picture:
You can buy this as a print here, and it was taken on Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm, "the world's first fiber CSA." As their site says, they were profiled in the Wall Street Journal this spring, and I remember reading about it and scoffing that "it's not a real farm." I don't know why I did that--although if you look at the pictures of those sheep and goats, they are preternaturally clean--but now that I've read about it more, it seems like a good way to go into fleece farming.

Hmm....

Tuesday Project Roundup: Because All Ranch Life Is Just Like "My Friend Flicka"

Something about shirtdresses make me think I could wear them on my imaginary ranch, while gathering eggs, visiting my loyal horse friend in the stables, standing at the back door looking out over the Wyoming mountains, etc. (Not, of course, while actually doing ranch work and getting dirty. Nobody ever mentioned that in My Friend Flicka.)

Anyway, here's the pattern--I added the sleeve cuffs on the left to the straight-skirted version in the middle:

Here's the fabric:

And here's a rumpled and dark modeled shot at the end of yesterday:
On the ranch I'd never be rumpled, though. I'm sure of it.

Nothing To Read Here

I am just OUT of ideas today. I considered discussing the fair and the aesthetic implications of a jacket with gold rick-rack beating a very cool houndstooth Sherlock-Holmes-goes-mod jacket; I considered complaining that I still have to make another trip to my bank to get the debacle of last week straightened out; I considered a Monday Project Roundup so I could congratulate my parents on 36 years of marriage tomorrow; I looked for a poem; I looked for a cute animal picture. Nothing.

Nothing to see here...nothing except these chickens!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. More than 130,000 donations--totaling $10 million--were made to Obama's campaign fund in the 24 hours following Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC. There may be hope for America after all.
UPDATED: Gloria Steinem weighs in on Ms. Palin. It's a great read.

2. Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road came out 51 years ago today. Some titles he considered were "Souls on the Road," "American Road Night," "Home and the Road," "Love on the Road," and "Along the Wild Road."

3. There's another cria at Blue Moon Ranch, and he had to wear a coat because it was cold! Nothing is cuter than animals in jackets. Maybe Toby needs a sweater...

A Song

Green and white cruisers and coffee in mornings;
Baby alpacas and gardens I'm growing;
Sweet little Tobys who sleep in the sheets:
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the thieves strike
with their fake checks
and they take my cash,
I simply remember my favorite things,
and then I don't feel so bad.

Except when I think that the defrauders walked out of the bank with $850 yet I have to take two days to fix things AND nobody can expedite putting that money back in my account yet. Then I feel bad.

Hmm, maybe that last verse doesn't work so well...


EDITED TO ADD: After a morning of investigating, it turns out thieves did NOT take my money. There was a teller error--an error that had me freak out, create a new account, and miss work. "Gee, we're really sorry about that. But at least there's no fraud!" As my friend Sean says, "For the love of god!"

Infuriating Headline Of The Day

From the good old paper copy of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Utahns Say Palin Is 'Like Us'." (Related story online here.)
Let's see, someone from a state popularly viewed to be inhabited by rootin' tootin' gun-totin' yokels; who believes creationism needs to be taught next to evolution and that sex education doesn't need to be taught at all; and who has a large family. Yes, she IS just like "us."

But she's not like me. And if McCain thinks I'm going to vote for him now just because he got a shady running mate who has two X chromosomes, he is sadly mistaken.

We Interrupt This Project Roundup For A Labor Day Report

I think I've started a tradition of doing physical activity that's slightly beyond my capabilities, preparedness, or both on Labor Day--last year I made Mr. Isbell hike to the tram at Snowbird and this year we went on an Epic Ride from my house to...well, not my parents house.

We were going to ride on the Jordan River Parkway down to 7200 South and make our way west. It was a long ride for us (not for some paternal people who ride 100 miles on their 61st birthday, of course) but we thought it would be easy and pleasant. And it was, until I noticed Mr. Isbell's back tire going flat around 4800 South. And realized neither of us had a patch kit.

So we call our "support team" (cough, thanks Dad, cough!) and have the "team van" come meet us at 5400 South, where Mr. Isbell's tire is repaired so we can continue our ride. However, while waiting for the repair I discover the only thing that was keeping both my front and back tire up...were the thorns I'd just pulled out of them.


The team van ended up taking us to my parents' house, where it was discovered that my front tire had three punctures and my back tire had four. (Again, thanks Dad!) So much for an Epic Ride--but it looks like I have a new tradition.

Happy Labor Day, Comrades

Listen to Utah Phillips perform some labor songs, and remember: "In the world of western attire, it is similarly tradition to wear a straw cowboy hat until Labor Day. After Labor Day, the felt hat is worn until Memorial Day."

(Quote is from here, via Wikipedia.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Neko Case didn't disappoint. She wailed for an hour, played fantastic NEW SONGS from an album coming out next March, and made charmingly awkward small talk between songs. My favorite? Introducing a song by Harry Nilsson, she said, "I like to think that his spirit haunts pinball machines."

2. I have the day off! I'm going to try to finish a dress, so I have a new fall dress to wear immediately after Labor Day, just like the movie Picnic.

3. Science news of the week: Researchers have discovered that crows (and probably other corvidae) can not only recognize and remember human faces, they can hold a grudge. Don't piss off a crow!

I Hope We're All Planning On Going To The Neko Case Concert Tonight

Neko Case, who's been described as sounding like "the angry ghost of Patsy Cline" and whose lyrics resemble an American Gothic fairy tale, is playing the FREE Twilight Concert at the Gallivan Center Tonight.

If you couldn't tell, I'm going, and you should go, too. Everyone should go! (Actually, if you're 17, pushy, and wearing a page from the Urban Outfitters catalog, you can stay home. I don't want a repeat of the last Twilight Concert I went to.) Everyone ELSE needs to go, though. You can come stand with us. Maybe we should bring some flowers to throw at her.

Check out a couple songs and a video here if you don't want to take my word for it.

Now With More Poems!

I found another good one on Writer's Almanac last week. I've never heard of Barbara Hamby but she sounds more like Kerouac than Kerouac did. (Any poem that can combine "hallelujah" and "coreopsis" is all right by me.)

It's a long one so I'm linking to it, but go read it and be happy at the sheer sound of it.

"Thus Spake The Mockingbird"

Tuesday Project Roundup: "Thank God For Sheep"

That's what knitting guru Elizabeth Zimmermann said, and I agree. It's so nice to work with soft springy apple green wool instead of flaccid cotton. (Although with that descriptor, who wouldn't prefer wool?)


Here's about 1/3 of a sweater from a pattern said Elizabeth thought up for a baby, modified for an adult (not by me, though; by this knitter). It's a delight to knit and I've been stuffing the ever-growing thing in my purse so I can do a pattern repeat on my lunch hour. I've realized I don't wear the bigger things I knit, just the scarves and gloves and hats, so I'm hoping this one will break the trend.

As Elizabeth said, "Knit on."

Monday Report

1. The tomatoes have finally decided to ripen:

2. Toby is back to normal, watching birds and wanting to play.
(Here's the view right outside that window--attack of the tomatoes!)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Go listen to some cowboy music today because it's my dad's birthday! He's lived by The Cowboy Code his whole life and taught me to do the same. To celebrate today, he's probably going to ride his bike 100 miles or something, because he's tough like that. Happy Birthday, Dad! (Edited to add: Yes, he is actually doing a century ride today, and it's Ray Bradbury's birthday today, too.)

2. Mark your calendars--if you want to exhibit anything in the State Fair, the Home Arts division is accepting entries next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. (Other dates to keep in mind: The State Fair's demolition derby is September 14th, and Blue Moon Ranch is having their Open Farm Day September 27th and 28th.)

3. Speaking of State Fair, I watched the musical in its entirety Wednesday night and oh, the costumes. And oh, the flimsy plot. And oh, how musicals have their happy endings. Up next: Meet Me In St. Louis.

Cats Do Not Eat Bubble Gum

I meant to give a Toby update at the beginning of the week, but by the time I got the quotes and Tuesday's project out of the way, he wasn't really getting any better. Friday's trip to the vet was pretty major--three shots and fluids in a kitty IV, none of which went well--and I hated to take him back, but back he went yesterday. All I can say is, it's a good thing I can take the top off of his kitty carrier, because he wasn't about to come out of it in the office.

It's an even better thing that he doesn't appear to have swallowed any of my crafty supplies and that we think we can get him better with more antibiotics. I'm still giving him tuna-flavored medicine and now I get to squirt pink medicine in his mouth, too, that's bubble-gum flavored. Which makes me wonder: "Who in the hell thinks that cat medicine should taste like bubble gum?"

Here's the little tyke in the happier times of early last week, before someone tried to squirt things in his mouth three times a day: He's improving already. He just doesn't like the taste of bubble gum.

Cute Animal Story Of The Week

This actually isn't that heart-warming, but it had the best line of my internet reading yesterday. Apparently, an emperor penguin has been part of the King's Guard in Norway since the Edinburgh Zoo let them adopt one in 1922. The latest penguin (they're all named "Nils Olav") just got knighted:
"During the ceremony, Nils had a sword dubbed on each side of his head, where his shoulders should be, to confirm his regimental knighthood."

Tuesday Project Roundup: "Nothing Is More Chic"

I thought I should wear all black, the universal sign of sophistication, to my high-school reunion, but I hate wearing black and sewing it is even more boring. So I decided on navy blue, since, as Cecil Beaton said, "Chanel demonstrated that nothing was more chic than fine linen, navy-blue serge, and lots of soap."

I had a pattern from my mother's stash that wanted to be made for a special occasion (well, it wasn't a muumuu, so it seemed dressy), so I went for the "navy-blue and lots of soap" Jackie O look, minus that back belt:
It actually doesn't look like much on the hanger, but with a tan, pearl studs, and a yellow clutch, it was just right:

"It Was As If Everyone Had Swelled"

And with that Grosse Pointe Blank quote for a title, here's the high school reunion experience...in quotes. I went with Mr. Isbell; the lovely Amber and her Ideal Husband shared in the alienation and hard alcohol.

"Everyone looks vaguely familiar, but only in the way that people who live in Salt Lake all look familiar."

"I expected there to be baby races or something."

"His wife's cute."
"Apparently, she's a good cook!"

"Sweetie, can we have one baby while the first one is still a baby?"

"I have, like, a million ants."
"We have half an acre of ants."
[There were awards for things like "Most Pets." We wanted to win.]

"Look around the room: We have cookies from Costco."
[Ideal Husband went to Judge Memorial and had a guy selling cocaine from the next locker. Amber had a bag of cookies from Costco in her locker during high school. That phrase just summed it up for me.]

Friday Unrelated Information

1. It’s Julia Child’s birthday today. If you’re a procrastinator like me, take comfort in the fact that she didn’t even learn how to cook decently until she was 32.

2. Toby has to go to the vet today. He has what seems to be kitty stomach flu—not too alarming, but enough that he has to go visit kindly Dr. Nan. Send some kitty-get-well vibes his way.

3. After a difficult week—which will be topped off by the vet followed by the high school reunion tonight—I’m going to do nothing tomorrow. I’m not even going to clean or go to the farmers market. Instead, I’m going to enjoy all the sunshine that we have left. And I might think of this Mary Oliver poem, “The Sun.”

Books That Feature My Imaginary Boyfriend

I’ve always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes—to the point where I was accused of having a crush on him in high school—and I’ve been unable to focus on any serious literature this summer. So imagine my delight to find a mystery that features a young lady with mad observational skills of her own who meets Holmes in retirement and becomes his newer, smarter Watson. The book is by Laurie King and there’s a whole series featuring the two, which is good because I was more than halfway through The Beekeeper’s Apprentice in just one day.

I can’t recommend my new discovery enough. If you’re a fan of Holmes at all, you’ll love them—the continuity between the Conan Doyle and King versions of Holmes is perfect, and there’s just enough period costume and descriptions of brandy being drunk. It’s light reading, yes, but not silly. (There’s an excerpt here.)

And I have to say, I think Holmes would approve of having such adventures with a 20-year-old in his retirement.

A Poem For The Housework

Monday's Writer's Almanac featured a Mark Strand poem that I really liked, with the love/tepid relationship with cooking and cleaning that I have. (I like to eat and I love a clean house, but sometimes I get so tired of providing food and order.) (My budget doesn't allow for restaurants. Or a maid. Someday.)

But this elevated things, if only momentarily. From "The Continuous Life":

...O parents, confess
To your little ones the night is a long way off
And your taste for the mundane grows; tell them
Your worship of household chores has barely begun;
Describe the beauty of shovels and rakes, brooms and mops;
Say there will always be cooking and cleaning to do,
That one thing leads to another, which leads to another;
Explain that you live between two great darks, the first
With an ending, the second without one, that the luckiest
Thing is having been born, that you live in a blur
Of hours and days, months and years, and believe
It has meaning, despite the occasional fear
You are slipping away with nothing completed, nothing
To prove you existed.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Morbid Curiousity Edition

So...Friday is my 10-year high school reunion. I'm going, because the curious part of me that "has hobbies and sees what happens" knows that if I don't attend and see how bad it really is, I'm always going to wonder. (Also, I thought, "What if someone in a book I write needs to go to a high school reunion and I don't know the exact feelings of displacement? I'd better go.")

Of course I made a dress for it (pictures next week). But I also decided to make a clutch, which gives you something to do with your hands when you're standing around talking at an alcohol-less event.

Obviously it still needs a lining, but it's turning out well.

Most importantly, it's nice and roomy, as Toby shows...

...because it needs to hold my flask. To quote the best high school reunion movie ever,
"Who needs hard alcohol?"
"I do!!"

It's That Time Again

To look for Elvis at the corner 7-11?
To remember the Alamo?
To go to work?
To celebrate that my parents now have high-speed internet by posting an Animaniacs compilation?
To just link to the video instead because I can't figure out how to embed video on the most user-friendly blogging platform around?

YES!

Enjoy it.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. As soon as I posted about how much I was biking, I got a weird, symptom-less sore throat and had to drive to work two days. Serves me right for showing off, I guess.

2. Speaking of biking, did anyone see Holly Mullen's editorial in the City Weekly a few weeks ago? She thinks it's not cars that are a threat to cyclists, it's cyclists not following the rules. I have to disagree, as long as we get news stories like this: Kamas man charged for swerving truck into cyclist.

3. IT'S A GIANT CHICKEN!
(That was for you, Dad.)

No More Frat Boys For President

I haven't made it a secret that Barack Obama is "my new bicycle" (click on the site to refresh and get a taste of what life will be like with Obama!), but I also haven't really mentioned that we shouldn't vote for McCain because of a host of reasons, not just because Obama is clearly superior.

Consider this one, from the beginning of the week: McCain went to the Sturgis motorcycle rally in S.D. because, well, I'm sure a lot of people there think Obama is a sissy boy [redacted] [redacted]. Easy political points, right? And what better way to win over your new biker friends than to offer up your 54-year-old trophy wife to compete in the topless Miss Buffalo Chip pageant? Dudes love that.

McCain: he'll pimp his wife for your vote--or at least make her laugh uncomfortably on stage while he's being a boor! As a commenter on one of the articles I read asked, "Do they have a dedicated group of fratty morons making up strategy there or something?"

Biking Report

I’ve been biking five days a week lately—four days to work and then to the farmer’s market. When I first started riding to work I was only able to ride two out of the seven blocks (straight) up to my apartment; now I can ride four. I’m getting much better at carrying things home, too: I’ve finally figured out how to get a dozen eggs* back from the farmers’ market unscathed. And yesterday I got two crystal lowball glasses that I bought at lunch (to drink Mad Men-style) home in one piece.

So all in all, I think the bike is working out. Especially since I bought it to be stylish first and functional second.

*Why make a special trip to buy local eggs? Because I read this, briefly considered becoming a vegan, then decided I could do better than than the generic “cage free” eggs in the grocery store.

Tuesday Project Roundup: The Lounging Before The Crafty Storm

Presenting: Lounge pants! These are a vast improvement over my old John Deere green pair from J. Crew.
And lounge shorts! Mr. Isbell really doesn't get any sewing done for him, so when he asked I had to make him something. (Of course, he originally asked for a suit, and couldn't understand why I didn't jump on that project.)
And after I finished these, I went crazy thinking about fall patterns and fabrics and sewing plans and knitting plans and how I could replicate this coat for less than $250. It's like the crafty version of the ant getting ready for the winter, I guess.

Like Christmas Morning

I was going to put these up Friday, but then Karma the alpaca had her baby (named Liza!) and I thought that would just be too much cute. So here's your Monday pictures of Toby, enjoying his new cat house Thursday night.


I understand now why parents can go completely overboard with buying their kids stuff--look how happy he is!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Karma the alpaca, the one I fell in love when I saw her as a baby two years ago, had a cria of her own yesterday! The baby's name isn't decided yet, but there are many cute pictures here. (I can't help thinking I should have bought Karma when she was for sale while pregnant last fall...I would have double my investment.) (I guess the fact I didn't have $15,000 laying around was a good reason, though.)
2. Druidic holiday alert: Today is Lughnasa, celebrating the end of summer and the beginning of the harvest. Let's hope my tomatoes ripen soon so they can join in.

3. I let myself drive to work today, which is the first time since last Monday. How decadent!

Crazy Cat Lady

Tonight will be an exciting night, because I'll take out the car and drive to buy a cat toy on sale! While wearing a muumuu! I'll be doing this fifty years from now, too!

But look what BigLots had in its ad--Toby needs one:

And I'm not even thirty yet. Just think how bad it's going to get...

Happy Birthday, Maria Mozart; Sorry We Insisted You Get Married

The Writer's Almanac, my new favorite source of blog material, tells us that today is the birthday of Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart in 1751, Wolfgang's older sister. She was a child prodigy on the harpsichord and clavier and when she and her brother toured together as children, she often received top billing. She composed, too--Wikipedia tells us "there are letters from her brother praising her work"--but nothing she wrote survives. After she reached her teens, her parents didn't allow her to tour, she stopped performing and probably composing, and she ended up getting married, raising a family, and giving piano lessons.

The whole story reminds me of Virginia Woolf's idea of "Shakespeare's sister" in A Room of One's Own--that even if Shakespeare had had a sister just as talented, she could have done nothing to develop it in the 16th century (or the 18th, apparently), because "she would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people [and] tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts." (The whole chapter is here.)
I certainly don't have the feminist or musical insight any more to make a point other than, "What a shame," but at least we're remembering her birthday.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Big Enough For A Sixpack And A Sock Monkey

I decided to revisit the cotton knitted bag pattern that turned out too small to hold anything except a tomato, and the result is I overcompensated, ran out of yarn, used up some odds and ends to finish, and ended up with a bag that's big enough for a watermelon and looks like a sock monkey*:

The bag stretches a lot; it could probably hold TWO watermelons. But it's useful and it's finished. I'm so tired of knitting with cotton, though--it's time to break out wool and start planning fall projects.

*Monsieur Le Singe, Guiseppi Tomasi, was something I made in high school. Because I was cool like that in high school.

It's Monday

Attack it like it's a bike pedal:


Or just lay on it and impede progress:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Werner Herzog, the crazy German filmmaker I studied in a college film class, has made a film about McMurdo station in Antarctica. My uncle is returning for another six months in McMurdo in August, so it would be cool to see what a crazy German filmmaker has to say about it in Encounters at the End of the World. The Salt Lake Tribune review can be read here.

2. My latest favorite TV-on-DVD show is Mad Men, which has yet to make me feel angry or used the way Battlestar Galactic did. I started watching it for the costumes and to see how it compared with agency life today, and now I can't get enough. Season 2 starts Sunday.

3. I somehow ended up reading about what you should have in a chicken first aid kit and a story about raccoons trying to kidnap Tickle Me Elmo online this week. I love the internet!
In the middle of one night we were awakened to the sound of Tickle Me Elmo laughing his little head off. Upon investigating we found Elmo stuck in the cat door unable to stop laughing and vibrating. The raccoons had abandoned him when they couldn’t squeeze him through the door.

Why Is Today Special?

Because it’s the birthday of Amelia Earhart and Zelda Fitzgerald and my friend Tiffin. It’s also a day after the birthday of Raymond Chandler, the best detective novelist ever, and a day after the birth of a yet-to-be-named cria at Blue Moon Ranch (I’d call him Nero):

It was also pretty special to go four blocks out of my way on my ride in this morning to avoid the crowds of pioneers.