Great Minds

One of the interesting aspects of my relationship with David is that we often have the same thoughts at the same moment. And when I say often, I mean at least on a daily basis. Maybe it's a psychic bond, maybe it's just having very similar frames of reference, but it's been that way through the entire relationship.

Lately we've been watching old episodes of "The X-Files", thanks to Netflix. Earlier tonight, we were watching an episode where animals in an Idaho zoo were apparently being abducted from their cages by aliens but then not being put back in quite the right location afterward and wreaking havoc on the local population.

One of the animals was a tiger who ended up in a warehouse across town. As our intrepid FBI agents arrived on the scene, Scully said to Mulder, "How does a tiger get all the way on the other side of town without being spotted?"

David and I both immediately yelled at the TV, "Because it's striped!"

A Fortunate Non-crisis

Last night I noticed I was nearing the end of the current ball of yarn I'm working from for the vest-in-progress, and it struck me that I couldn't remember if this was the 2nd or 3rd ball of the four I have. Since the yarn is a one-off dyejob I got from Nanney Kennedy last year at Rhinebeck, and there were only 4 skeins to be had, I started to get a little nervous. After all, I'm still about 4 inches from the armholes, and we all know how much yarn the cabling takes up.

So I got home from work and quickly looked and found one lone ball of yarn. Curses! I love this yarn - the color is pretty true in the photo, very denim-y - and really want to have this particular vest in this particular yarn. Visions of having to frog the whole thing back and starting from scratch on this project were swirling in my head as I went to bed and got a fitful day's sleep. When I got up this evening, though, I had a slightly more thorough look and, sure enough, found the 4th ball fallen down under a bit more of the clutter that is my yarn room. Crisis averted!

Just to make sure, though, I did a quickie calculation and determined that by the time I reach the armholes I should be right at 2/3 of the yarn used. Once I figure in the armhole decreases and the V-neck shaping, that should give me just enough to finish this project. I hope.

Take That, Cancer!

So today was the Race for the Cure, and I did pretty well. I finished in 28:47, which put me in 181st place overall and 23rd out of 31 in my age division. Considering I've been running for less than 6 months and this was the first actual race I've ever been in, I'd say that's a decent showing.

Thanks to everyone who donated! Maybe if governments spent the kind of money on good medical research that they do on wars, organizations like this wouldn't have to ask for donations. Until we can manage to put such a government in place, though, folks like you make a huge difference to people in need.


Strange Symbiosis



I've noticed this summer, that my crowder peas have been especially attractive to yellow jackets. As near as I can tell, the plants seem to be secreting something at the base of the pods that the wasps find irresistible (see the photo). I can't tell if it's maybe a tiny amount of fluid or what, but the effect is specific for yellow jackets. I've seen mention of the phenomenon on some gardening forums, but no scientific treatise on the subject that I've found, as yet. It does appear to be a symbiotic relationship, though. The wasps get something they want while the plants get some serious protection - I've seen zero predation on these plants, and I've been very careful myself when picking the pods.

Miscellanea

The First

David recently finished up his fall wholesale catalog, which caused his summer to be filled with much blood, sweat, and tears. Especially the tears part. The end result, though, is freakin' gorgeous. My husband is incredibly talented.

Anyway, one of the alpaca photos used in the catalog came from Homestead Geek, to whom we are much obliged. Thanks to her, and VUBOQ, I expect that I'll probably opt for the nook when I travel down the e-reader path, but that's not what this is about. What this is about is that I highly recommend giving her blog a read. Also if you're in her area (which is I'm-not-quite-certain-where), you might also consider purchasing some of her homemade pickles to help her help her mom.

Miscellaneum, The Second

I signed up this week to run the Susan Komen Race for the Cure 5K. The race is actually this Sunday, so I set my fundraising goal very, very low. Donations of $5 or $10 (or even more, if you can spare) would be zOMG-so-very-greatly!!! appreciated and can be made through my ridiculously-difficult-to-find fundraising page (srsly, somebody needs to give the code monkeys a swift kick for their barely-navigable site), which I did eventually manage to find here.

Miscellaneum, The Third

I actually picked up the needles for the first time in a couple of months and started back in on the plait-cabled tennis vest I'm reworking from a WWII-era Red Heart booklet. I'm only slightly farther along than I was here, but I still love the yarn and the pattern. Perhaps one day I'll actually finish it, and maybe even write up the updated pattern.

Gardening, Accidental and Otherwise

I harvested my first butternut squash today.



The funny thing is that I never intentionally planted any. The composted alpaca manure I used to fill the raised beds for raspberry and sweet potato just happened to have some squash remains that had been thrown on the pile. So I ended up with three totally unplanned vines that have spread over a big chunk of the sideyard and over the compost pile. This one is growing between the slats of one of the pallets we have to enclose the compost.



Not quite sure how I'm going to cut it out of there. And then there's the third variety.



I also have a little stand of sunflowers that I think were planted by our resident chipmunk.



One crop I did plant that's been going at it gangbusters are my crowder peas. The description says they "have a tendency to vine in rich soils". Apparently my soil is very rich! They've been rather Jack-and-the-beanstalk-ish, and it's been sort of a constant effort to keep them trained up the rather strained poles I put up, rather than sprawling all over the walkway. I've already saved some early seeds for next year and expect I should have a decent little crop for eating by the end of season.



My tomato plants are also loaded with green tomatoes. I set them out a bit later than planned, so they've needed time to catch up, but I'm expecting they'll ripen up before frost hits. Long season crops are always a bit of a challenge here, but being by the ocean and having a south-facing hillside keeps us effectively as a USDA zone 7 microclimate, even though we're nominally zone 5 or 6, depending on which version of the map you reference. Since that designation only looks at minimum winter temps, though, we still run into the issue of a short season, but as with knitting, it's more about the process for me than the final product.

Time with the Nieces

My sister's girls (aged 6 and 8) are up visiting their Gram & Pa for a few weeks, so as I was planning to head to my grandmother's on Schoodic Peninsula for a too-short visit while my aunts are up from FL and NC, I swung by my parents' and picked the girls up to get a taste of what my childhood summers were like. We made the trip downeast on Thursday, which was also the peak activity night for the Perseids.

Since the skies were clear and perfect for some spectacular viewing, we fished out a couple of old Army surplus quilts to lay on the ground in the back yard and covered up with a quilt I had in the car. Alison (aka Ash), the younger, decided to stay up with me and we saw some amazing ones before Mary, who is not a night owl, was roused from her nap to come watch for a while.

The next day we headed across the road and down to the shore, where my uncle Brad lives. He was going to take the girls for a little ride in his inflatable raft but decided once they headed out that the water was too choppy for it to be enjoyable and took them for a somewhat longer ride in his big boat, which is moored out in the natural harbor.





The view of Mount Desert Island and the Porcupine Islands was particularly nice.



And the girls really enjoyed the boat ride.



Then we threw together a picnic lunch and headed to Schoodic Point.





And then on to visit cousin Miriam Colwell, who lives in the colonial farmhouse where she was raised by her grandparents and who, at 93, is remarkably spry. While I enjoyed visiting with Miriam and looking at the paintings and sculptures done by her late partner, the artist Chenoweth (Chennie) Hall, the girls were more interested in being kids.



Then we headed on to Corea village, so we could take some photos of the ever-picturesque harbor.





On the way back to the house, we stopped for one last photo op in Prospect Harbor village.



Mary declared it "the most awesomest day ever since we've been in Maine!"

Queen of Vagina (Almost Certainly NSFW)

My sister flew up with her girls Tuesday night so they could spend a few weeks with their Gram & Pa. Said sister had to turn around and fly back yesterday afternoon, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time visiting. She did, however, share this Ohrwurm, which she was humming almost constantly.



I particularly love how the QoV keeps singing "have sex with my vagina", as if she'd just be a bystander in the whole experience. Reminds me of a David Sedaris story (which I can't seem to find video of).

Damselflies

I took this when we were camping at Hartford Beach State Park with Mike & Sue and their 4 kids, who have grown up so much since we last saw them. This little swarm of damselflies was sprinkled on the grass by the lake's edge like little blue jewels. This one should definitely be embiggened.

Pelicans

Not something you'd typically expect to see in South Dakota, but there they were. These guys were enjoying themselves in a bit of flooded out marsh alongside Lake Poinsett (that's pronounced PON-sit), which is right here:


View Larger Map

It struck me last night that if I just posted one photo from the trip per day, that would provide me with blog fodder until some time in November. I likely won't do that to you, though. Or will I?

Double Rainbow

No, not this one.

This was taken from David's Aunt Lila's front yard in Rapid City. About three weeks ago. Because I'm a bad blogger.

Another South Dakota Postcard

or, My what a big sign you have!



We chanced upon this in Rapid City before catching our flight home. If only the food had been as impressive as the sign. I've taken what would be described down south as a ass of photos and will work on putting together some more coherent posts soon (with luck).

Greetings from South Dakota!

Just a quickie drive-by post. We're in South Dakota on vacation and visiting with the in-laws. We started in Sioux Falls (way eastern side of the state) and are now just outside Hill City (near Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills). I'll try to post more later, but I thought I'd share this photo I took a few nights ago in Leola, which is the town of about 300 people in north central SD where David's mother's family comes from.



Just for reference, this photo was taken at around 9:30 in the evening. Since Leola is at about 45N latitude and near the western end of the Central time zone, it gets dark really, really late this time of year.