Summer, shirtless

Holly's latest pictures of the boys are posted on her blog. This is one of my favorites.

Summer, secret pal

What an awesome summer secret pal box from Ashley in Virginia! Yarn, fiber, a spindle (yes! I do want to learn to spin! But I'm not going to even try until the fair is over and I have the guest room finished.) And she sent a bib from the House of Representatives for Alex and a can of the most delicious peanuts I have ever tasted. My pal's gift is finally on the way -- I'm sure she thinks I am a complete slacker. You know that saying, "I had it all together and then forgot where I put it?" That's me lately.

And here's Toulouse, looking fierce. He's not, just sweet.
Peace.

So long, Starbucks

I will admit to being thrilled when it was announced that a Starbucks would be opening in town.

But also a little puzzled.

Starbucks? Here?
And the location, although quite convenient for me (between my house and town) was questionable -- almost 2 miles from the interstate.
I will also admit to totally buying into the Starbucks hype.
I would go every day if I wasn't so cheap.

I almost always get the same thing -- venti latte non-fat. Or in the summer, an iced passion tea, unsweet. I usually take a coffee to Knit Night, parish council meetings, etc. Last Christmas, I received 6 Starbucks gift cards -- it was a great Christmas. The store is a good place to tutor, knit and talk.

And now, it's on the closure list.

I am sorry for the friends who work there; the company has said they will try to place workers at other shops, but the closest is 2o miles away in Columbus (where there are 3!), and with gas at $4.00, I wonder if many of them will jump at the chance.

So I will miss our Starbucks. But I won't miss the guilt of buying a $3.85 cup of delicious but non-fair trade coffee (only 6% of the coffee they buy is fair trade -- not quite enough to hang your fair trade hat on, which they try to do).

Starbucks will go back to being an on-the-road, once-in-awhile treat, and I can brew coffee, make passion tea, listen to soft jazz and bake cookies with those little M&M's at home.

Peace.

PS - Dear Starbucks, even my arch enemy Wal-Mart sells fair trade coffee now.

LYS Visits

Sometimes, it takes a while for me to catch on to acronyms. You know, like ROFLMAO. DH, SO, DS, and DD. And my personal favorite, WTF?

When I first started reading knitting sites and blogs, I thought LYS stood for "little yarn store," but found out much later the L was for "local" -- actually, though, I like "little" better.

Monday, I went to Jeffersonville to get some supplies for our class reunion -- there is an amazing novelty/party store there -- Horner's. I found just what I needed, then had plenty of time to visit The Grinny Possum, a LYS I had heard about on Ravelry -- it was just down the street from Horner's. It is a very cute shop, with a cute name -- there are little stuffed possums all over the store. (You know, possums are pretty cute little animals, aren't they? Too bad we most often see them in the deceased and flattened state.) The owner is lovely, and she knit the whole time we were talking, and put her work down only to ring up my purchase. They had a Modern Quilt Wrap on display, made in the KSH; I am still in love with that pattern, and plan to re-start it soon. I did a little shopping for my secret pal:

Then, because Will was at driver's ed, I had time to stop in at Two Be Weavers in Salem, as well. This is my dream LYS, just like I would love to own. Perennial gardens outside, fireplace inside, and Julie, the most helpful owner. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but came away with a skein of Alp (which I had never even heard of before -- it's a series of novelty yarns in complementary colors tied end-to-end. I bought the pink and green, but saw a skein of red that my friend, Deb, would love), a skein of mohair and some cute needles. The Alp and mohair are turning into this shawl which I plan to give to my fiddle-playing pal, Ruby, and which I might take to the fair if I get it done by next Thursday:

it's a pretty quick knit on #15's.

I finished Alex's colorful pinwheel blanket on vacation, but I'm just not satisfied with the I-cord border -- I thought it would be a nice sturdy edge for a little boy's blanket, but it curls. And, because it is made with Red Heart acrylic, the curl won't block out. So, off it comes. At least I learned how to do an I-cord edging, right?

Peace.

PS -- If you have trouble with acronyms, too, this site is quite helpful.

Why no blogging?

I just can't get caught up. Here is a brief list of the the things I've wanted to write about the past few weeks:

new baby excitement

vacation fun

driver's ed

expensive hair cut

class reunion preparations

and of course,

knitting

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe.

Peace