Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July to all who celebrate it! Enjoy the fireworks and be safe.

Can't believe it's July already. Things continue to be busy around here. Sunday was Elliott's birthday bash. Before dinner was served, the rain and thunder began, so we ended up moving inside.
As you can see - everyone had a good time. Lots of iron man and Bumblebee themed gifts.
Anyone else having a flash forward to Halloween? I have a feeling that Paul and Peg will regret putting the gun on his wishlist.

Just saying. And sometimes, kids toys can baffle adults. No one could get the Transformer to fully transform, for fear of breaking it.
Tuesday we had a cookout for friends and family. And celebrated Sarah's birthday (which is the same as Elliott's).
The boys are very good helpers when it comes to candles. Then on Wednesday night, we went to the Indians game.
The boys in front of Bob Feller.
The view from our seats.
Aubrey was the only one of the kids not freaked out by our meeting with Slider.
We were all decked out in our Tribe gear. And it helped - Tribe beat the Blue Jays 3-2.
Not that the kids let us watch much of it, but they had a good time and that's the important part.
And we've made a start on turning Sarah into an Indians fan - as she claims there's no chance that she'll become a Steelers fan (silly Cowgirls fan).

I finished a spinning project this week.
My "Verdigris" fiber, made into a lace-weight single (first ever single that stayed a single) and I love it. I should probably admit that I have about another ounce to spin up, but this 870 yds filled the bobbin, so it got taken off and finished. I'll finish the spinning a little later, maybe after I finish my new spinning project:
That is 8 oz of Crown Mountain Fibers BFL in "Life, Love, Laughter". So pretty.
I had thought to spin it up a bit thicker, but it had other ideas. The prep is a pencil roving so it's hard to get it to be real thick anyway. But this is my spin for the Tour de Fleece (yep we knitters/spinners celebrate a lot of sporting events don't we?)

I started some new knitting projects this week too. First, a lacy scarf with my handspun "Picnic Basket":
Nice and simple, so it should go fast. Which means that it will take forever. Just because I said that.

And then Friday night, I cast on for a Shaelyn shawl with my very favoritest yarn, Smooshy.
In "Midnight Derby", the same color I used for the pirate hat and mitten set I made for C4 awhile ago. Also, a nice simple but pretty pattern, that should work up pretty quickly. Seriously, I'm jinxing myself.

Yesterday, I went on a little trek with Meagan and Marcus to the West Side Market.
Total tourist picture, but it was only my second ever trip there, and the first was a field trip senior year in high school. It was loads of fun. This was my favorite booth:
Can you blame me? Granted I didn't look at each of the booths, but still, this one would still rank right up there. We had quite a spread for lunch when we got back to the house:
Very Frenchy-french in my opinion. We just needed to be sitting in a park with the Eiffel Tower in view for it to be complete. It was amazingly delicious, and we can't wait to do it again. Check out my Buckeye cupcake:
So sinfully good. Yeah - that's a PB cup in the bottom of the cupcake. Yum.

Alright, need to get some knitting done before we make the bison steak I bought yesterday, and then head out for the fireworks with Meagan. Happy Independence Day!

Major Recap

Okay dokey. We're coming out of radio silence. Sorry about that folks, It's been a bit crazy around here. This is a mostly real life post - as opposed to knitting life - so if that's what you're here for sorry to disappoint. Let's see, where to start?

Two weekends ago - that would be the 6th and 7th, started the busy-ness. Saturday morning saw me working in Sagamore Hills for the duathalon, again. On my way home I swung by to see if berry picking had started at Patterson's, it hadn't. But I had the urge to go pick, knowing that the next weekend was booked solid and then there wouldn't be any berries left. Anyway - long story short, me, Mom and Mrs J went out to Perry and picked. Lots. Yum.

Sunday was Mom's birthday. So it was family day. Much silliness on the parts of my ninja nephews:Miss Aubrey mostly slept, it's what she does best, but I did manage to get a shot of the whites of her eyes.Ellie had to work that night but she supplied the superb, non-WW approved cake.Mom's gonna be so mad I featured her on the blog - but she's in Jersey and can't hurt me at the moment. Anyway, when you're the birthday girl, you have to get at least one solo shot. The nephews continued in their particular brand on "good photo ops while eating cake" - I think we might have to trademark that for the two of them, wonder if Aubrey will join in the fun when she's old enough...Having picked strawberries the day before, we had some with the fruit salad, and I introduced my nephews to them. Funny to me that they had never tried them before, but my SIL doesn't like them (craziness). Elliott isn't too big on trying new things, so we'll try again next year. But Mason... wow, I think he ate 2 bowlfuls (is that a word?). He couldn't get enough. So I guess he's got a bit of the Colton blood in him. And speaking of strawberries, here's the shortcake that I made that Monday:It was fantastic, if I do say so myself. Mmmm, want some now.

Onto last weekend. Saturday I was up for WW, then met Bridget and Kaylee at the mall for some shopping. Then home to pack, then onto the Indians game with Dad (they lost sadly) then drove down to Columbus. I started a sock on the car ride down, plain vanilla, just to have something to work on that I didn't need to think about. Got through the leg and started the heel flap before bed that night- felt like I had finally gotten my knitting mojo back.

Sunday, was the big day. Commencement at Ohio State for Ellie. I'm sure that if she hasn't done a big post about it yet, she will soon, with more stuff that I wasn't around for. So here goes.Outside the Shoe before the ceremony. The sock as it was before I started knitting it in the Shoe.

Mom photo-ing me knitting the sock before the ceremony started.

All 8,165 graduates finally seated. Too bad we hadn't gotten to the faculty yet...

The nursing graduates had the balloons - which made for easy finding. If you click to embiggen the photo, and go 3 three people to the left of the orange banner, you'll find Ellie. One good thing about being at the start of the alphabet.

Filing out to get the actual diplomas, once again use the orange banner as your reference mark.

The balloon launch to mark the announcing of the School of Nursing.

The President of the University has a part-time job as an auctioneer. This is the actual conferring of the degrees on all 8K undergraduates.

The sock after the ceremony was over. More on it's progression at a later time.

Congratulations Ellie!

All together now: OH-IO!!!

Alright, so I've got 2 weeks of work at the hospital under my belt. Not loving it - like I knew I wouldn't, but it's not horrible. And it is going quickly, only 3 weeks left until vacation! Hard to believe that at the end of Wednesday, I'll be able to say I'm halfway done. The change in schedule has left me exhausted most nights, but I'm finally getting used to it. Which means that I'm finally getting more knitting done. I also joined the Y and went faithfully Monday through Thursday after work this week. The exercise has done me good, because yesterday at weigh-in, I was down 2 lbs, which put me at (drumroll please)... a total of 40 lbs lost!!! Insert Happy Dance here! And I think that's it for now. This has gotten long enough. I'll try not to go so long next time.