Happy Birthday Henry!

Eleven years ago today, on another Monday morning, at 9:24am, my only child was born in Kaiser Santa Clara. I was 24 minutes into my maternity leave, and Bill missed his 9am meeting. Life has not been the same since.

Happy Birthday Henry!

This picture was from our gathering with other Feb99 families for the babies' first birthday. It's one of my favorite mother-son pictures.

This morning Henry found his mandatory acceptance letter from Hogwarts. The past weekend was our city's basketball tournament. Henry's team made it to the championship game, despite winning only two games during the season and came into the tournament as the last seed. We lost to the champion, but Henry played a great game, on Chinese New Year no less, scored, and was very happy.

Trinket Is 15

Fifteen years old! Our first born turned 15 years old last Saturday. Quite unbelievable if you ask me. We had a little cake to celebrate, and Bucky had some baby food from the jar.

I made a little video with some pictures of Trinket and us to honor the event.

Bucky and His People

They say owners pick dogs that have qualities they admire, that doesn't explain how Bucky landed with me. This completely willful little guy, never bothers to listen to his humans, talks when he wants to, at the volume that, well, he feels appropriate. When I one day lie down on the shrink's couch, what's he gonna tell me? "You should be firm, young lady, show him who's the boss."

Right.

Muffins

This season Henry is playing basketball with a team that calls themselves Muffins with Attitude (Henry hates the name). Our coach put together this video clip for the only winning game so far. MWA is in white, Henry is number 22, and yours truly took the video.

Puppy Sandwich

On rainy stormy cold winter nights, Trinket likes to bury himself in a pile of pillows or the doggie bed to keep warm and hide from the nasty monsters. He flips up the cushion in the doggie bed, and makes himself a little sandwich.

2010 Knitting Retreat

The South Bay Knitters annual knitting retreat in the Quaker Center in the Santa Cruz mountains was this past weekend. The retreat is from Friday to Sunday and I'm always a Saturday day tripper. We start the day early, leaving in a carpool around 7am when it's still dark and foggy, and end the day late, after dinner and dessert, when the roads in the mountain are pitch black. In between we fit in an early morning breakfast of scones and fresh fruit, a late morning brunch with lovely egg dishes and bacon aplenty, some of us go for a hike while others are content to sit around and knit all day. Dinner is not to be missed and the chocolate cake is the die for, seriously. Gift exchange in the afternoon is the highlight of the weekend. The nice ladies take off their masks and steal mercilessly. Somehow I always end up with the good stuff.

A very special moment this year was when I showed off my Great American Afghan squares. They are lined up on the table, some still need edging to size them up. One of the squares was deemed too bright and voted off the island. I need knit another one to fill the hole.

The kind ladies applauded for my effort while I busied myself playing paparazzi.

Re-arranging the squares so they all look right.

Dr. Nancy is holding the evil turquoise square. "No, I don't think so, out you go."

Pre-Retreat Yarn Crawl

The annual South Bay Knitters retreat was this weekend, so on Friday, on the way to the retreat center for most people, we went on a yarn crawl to visit the Santa Cruz area shops.

First off, the Yarn Place in Capitola.

A stop for lunch at Gayle's Bakery across the street.

Second shop is Chic's with Sticks in Santa Cruz. This is a new shop and for most of us it's our first visit. Owner Cathy opened the shop early for our group and offered us a 10% discount. Her sweet grand daughter climbed on the table and showed us how to cast on.

Fae was drafted as temporary tutor and knitting doctor while the young lady admired her crocheted leaf scarf.

Third store is Swift Stitch on the west side of Santa Cruz. The store was having a big sale, 20% off total purchase if you pay by credit card, or 25% off pay by cash or check.

I took advantage of the deal and bought four skeins of hand dyed merino wool called Hacho (from Peru). With almost 550 yards, I think this will become a small shawl or a lacy vest.

Last stop was The Golden Fleece, at the base of Highway 9. By now the troop had scattered, some went for icecream and some finished early and went to Cost Plus across the street or the coffee shop. The shop has not agreed with me much since they moved almost two years ago, so my credit card stayed intact.

Merry Christmas!

Twas the day before Christmas

When all through the house

Not a creature was stirring

Not even a mouse

GAAA Squares Done, Pre-Edging

Pattern: Great American Aran Afghan booklet
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (worsted weight)
Needles: US Size 8
Previous entries: Squares One to Six, Squares Seven to Twelve, Squares Twelve to Seventeen

There are twenty four squares in the booklet and I knitted every one of them, in the right order. The biggest square came out about 14"x14". Next I will add black edging to the other twenty three so they match in size. When it's all done, the blanket will be at least 56x84, which is more than seven feet long (with final boarder). I think it's big enough.

Pups Update

Since Bucky's birthday a few weeks ago, the weather has suddenly turned cold, and Bucky started having a lot more trouble walking. One day he simply stopped walking on the hardwood floor in the kitchen. He has severe arthritis in both hips. When he can't get a good foot hold, the hips just give out and he sits down, legs stuck under him, and he can't move at all. This gives him a bad temper and he hollers till someone picks him up and unstuck him. He can still walk around on the carpet in the living room and bedrooms, or outside on the stone walk way. But I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and he always wants to be with me. Lately we got in sort of a routine -- we carry him to his food bowl, to the water bowl, to the big potty outside, to his bed. As long as his humans are within eyesight he's fine, within ear shot is not good enough.

Some days he feels well enough to enjoy the sunshine in the garden.

With all this going on with Bucky, Trinket becomes the much ignored big brother. As they say, sometimes no news is good news. He will be 15 in less than two months and we are all happy that he's gingerly chugging along.