So, this morning I woke up very early and my newspaper horoscope said I'd have energy to tackle a project long postponed. I threw it aside - Sun Signs, bah, that's not a Real Horoscope. So I sat working on the Trinity Shawl, waiting for Yon Holy Depot to open. And it did. And still I sat. And time passed, and the coffee was good.

And then I went into the garage to start a load of laundry, after turning on the sprinkler and other yard tasks, and I started the machine. And then I started shifting stuff around in the garage, figuring out what I could put out for the trash tomorrow night. Only two trash pickup days before The Cabinet Truck Cometh, this is a serious crunch time.

So you know the rest, I didn't make it to Yon Depot, but I have a huge pile of stuff sorted for the trash and I have, after Monday's trash and a trip to Goodwill, a half-hour of garage rearrangement to make room for the entire kitchen's worth of cabinets. I also assembled, hung and filled a new bird feeder, which involved putting eye hooks into wood at pre-marked places, one of which was thoughtfully located in a friggin' KNOT in the wood, hard as a rock. I got it in there with a hammer and pliers, but I think a nice little cordless drill is on my next shopping trip. (The squirrels are having a blast throwing themselves off the Big Backyard Tree into the new feeder, it requires a horizontal leap of about a foot and a half.)

I also finally "dog-proofed" the yard and let Murphy have his first outings in his new domain. He liked it, he really liked it. We played with his Tiny Frisbee and he chased lizards. He ignored the pond and did not fall in, or even go near it, though he did get into the tomato patch.

I see further modifications I must make, like trimming up the very sticky, sappy Confederate Jasmine above Dog High, so he can walk under it - he's fascinated with the way it falls all he way to the ground, it's like his secret Lizard-Filled Hideout, and that would be fine if it wasn't full of the gluey-est sap ever and he didn't have more hair than Howard Stern. I don't want to have to have him shaved. He would look SO stupid. The jasmine will get trimmed up a foot from the ground.

I was wondering how Murphy would behave in his first "off leash outdoors experience" in his entire life. (Yes, he has been a leash dog for four years, no free runs outdoors. Sad, isn't it?) I was wondering if the freedom would go to his head and he'd tune me out, stubborn little shit that he is, but he's fine - very obedient, I say "Let's go in the house!" and he runs to the door with me. We had to have a lesson on "You are only allowed in the yard when invited" but he caught onto that right away - I was going in and out to the grill and I didn't want him underfoot. He bolted out with me the first time, but after being picked up and parked back in the house with a scolding, he remembered his manners and now waits for "Come out!" Once I have mulch and a patio and all the bells and whistles are in place it'll be different, he'll have a lot more freedom, but for his first ventures in the evolving yard we have to have some rules.

Get to the knitting, for God's sake!




The color in that shot is atrocious, the shawl isn't BLUE, the color is called "Prosperous Plum," and it's a nice rich purple, but at least that shot shows that it's not a solid mass of bobbles. It's a tough one to photograph because when on a flat surface it looks like...a solid mass of bobbles. I don't have enough arms to hold it up in front of the window and take a picture of it to show all the lacy connections between the bobbles, so the chair had to stand in.



And there is the solid mass of bobbles but a more accurate representation of the color. It's really a richer purple than that, it's still a bit too blue in that picture, but not as wildly wrong as the other one.

In between garage and yard things, I also started making a sample of a crochet pattern from Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet (great book). I haven't taken a picture yet, but it's a puff-stitch lace, easy as pie. I'm thinking of it in black or a neutral color, with a bright lining behind it, as a crocheted summer bag. My swatch is washcloth-sized, because the bag will be cotton and I have a few colors of the same gauge of cotton yarn. My feeling about swatches - what the hell is the purpose of the four inch swatch? It's too small to be anything but a coaster. If I swatch cotton, it's a washcloth to be. If I swatch wool, it's at least a six inch square that can at least theoretically, if I like it, live on as a square on a throw pillow or dog blanket or something. I hate wasting anything but especially my time. Time is precious, you don't get it back.

So that's why I savor every minute spent parked on the couch, needles in hand. These are good times.

Tomorrow's agenda: HD after Mass, along with the usual Sunday Marathon: Target, maybe Lowe's, maybe Costco. Two hardware stores, a warehouse store and a discount store. It's The Suburban Shopping Experience.