A Fun, HOT Day

Let's just say it was a bad day to wear white and order jeni's Milkiest Chocolate ice cream.  Thankfully, that was the last stop on Hannah's and my adventure.  

We started at Homegrown, at little store that we both love.  I got this "Madame Butterfly" print:

Hannah fell in love with this:

She, like me, has a gallery wall, and this got hung as soon as we got back to her place.

Then we went to bside, a little snack and coffee shop next to and partnered with The Deer and The Dove, which is Hannah's favorite restaurant in town.  Next, the ill-fated jeni's stop.  It was, I will say, the first time we ever went in that there wasn't a long, long line.  And there were these magnificent powerful super-cold fans inside, which were so welcome.

Not a whole lot coming up this week.  An appointment with my psychiatrist, a therapy session.  Then, probably staying in the air conditioning and dodging thunderstorms.  The South in Summer --- what can I say?

Results!

The loveseat is in place!!

Yes, I dropped it on my toe getting it out of the box.  (Said toe is swollen.)  The pillows don't color-match  but they're lions.  End table(s) and rugs are all that's left.

Guess what Mother Nature is providing now that my comfy seat is in place?

Deep, rumbly, Sam-Elliott's-voice thunder all day, with occasional downpours.  Perfect.

The socks are done!!

I'm as proud, maybe prouder, of these than almost any else I've ever knit.  Next I might give a scarf a whirl.  Nothing fancy, just something to test my endurance.  I'm pretty sure there's a Wool and the Gang kit around here that will fit that bill.

Off to see my daughter tomorrow.  In a shameless promotion of her employer, go try a Chick-fil-a peach frosted lemonade.  They do tend to come up with ingenious tastes in Summer.  For a number of reasons, I don't frequent CFA, but it is keeping a roof over my daughter's head, so...

Crushed

 Randolph Mantooth has died.  This makes me very, very sad.  I had a mad crush on him from his "Emergency!"

It was his hands and forearms that ignited my continuing passion for men's hands and forearms.  And "Emergency!" made me want to be a paramedic.  All the way through my first year of graduate school, as a matter of fact.  Then I taught my first class and knew I should be a teacher.

Thank you and rest easy, Randolph.

Stuff Everywhere

I have one of these now

My eyes are way uneven, and that is unquestionably a porcine nose.  I was afraid Tap would freak out when he saw me in it.  He didn't look twice.

Otherwise, I have gotten myself into well, a lot.

The lion on the back of the front door speaks for us all.  The big box is seating for the back porch.  It took me forever to find something I liked.  Fingers crossed that it works.  Next will be rugs.  They've been as elusive as appropriate seating.  Then, if space permits, an end table.  And a lamp.  It just goes on and on.

Thunderstorms rolling through right now.  One of the best things about the porch is sitting and watching it rain.  It's still hot during the day, which provides nothing interesting to watch.

Almost done with the second sock.  Stay tuned.

 

What Happened There?

I thought I had published this already.  Last night was weird, though.  I'd get really sleepy, I'd go to bed thinking that was it for the night, sleep two hours, then pop back awake.  This went on all night.  Aggravating.  Not restful.  Dotted throughout with super, SUPER oddball dreams.  

Sandpiper babies are just the cutest, don't you agree?  Plus, they're full of personality.  If you haven't yet watch the Pixar short "Piper."  It will be six of the best minutes you'll ever spend.

Several of my air plants are pupping, so I've gotten little, bitty containers for them.  This one caught my eye for one reason: the hands.

It's elegant and flow-y.  Then, something else caught my eye.

The fingers.  There aren't enough, and that one is just. . . wrong.  If any pups make it to this, it will have to be turned just so.

The Emmy nominations came out today.  You go, "Pitt" girls!!  Four of my favorites from the first time I ever saw them also nominated: Stephen Root, Dale Dickey, Richard Jenkins, and Laurie Metcalf.  All of them genuine, true actors.  If I hear that any of them are in something, I want to see it.  Root most especially.

Interesting things tomorrow.  Wait patiently.

Problem Solved?

 Blogger has either changed its layout scheme, or I hit a button inadvertently, 'cause everything is different here now.  I will plow ahead, though, in the spirit of the intrepid knitting blogger.

Who's not knitting very much just now.

BUT, I have been buying cheap, cheap tape measures, and putting them in one place.

I'll probably put some string lights in there, too, to make it cute.  You can never have too many string lights.  Hopefully, I now have too many tape measures.

Look!

 I do not travel by air often.  The next time,though, I hope I remember to grab one of Briton's many, many dinosaurs to stage something like this:

A good deal of my time today was spent rearranging Equine Alley.  I've gotten enough prints that space needed to be used more effectively.  Truth be told, I might be running out of room.  (Don't tell Temu or Great Big Canvas or Amazon or Art.com.) 

Growing up, the "rule" for Halloween was that you couldn't start trick-or-treating until it was dark.  Unsurprisingly, we all tried to talk our parents into seeing that it was, really and truly, "dark enough " to go.  People with fireworks here tonight started when it was much too light.  There's no way you could see those.  The upside, though, is that maybe they'll run through a lot of their stock early and the noise won't last too long.

Hold Your Fire. Please.

Some of us, we'll call us "sane" for classification purposes, have no interest whatsoever in going out tomorrow.  Working up a sweat just getting into a car is not a presager for a fun day.  When "Where is that handheld fan of mine?" overrides every other concern of the day, stay home.  We can cook ourselves hot dogs (without burning them, thankyouverymuch) and/or burgers in air conditioned kitchens.

Oh, and some of us will use sliced bread in place of actual buns, because we were told it's not going to taste any different than buns we would be wasting money on.  (They tasted VERY different.)

Last night, about 10:20, Tap woke me up barking at what I thought for just that split-second were gunshots.  (I've been told that you will know when you hear gunfire.  There's no mistaking it for fireworks.)  At any rate, someone ultra-near this house set off a fusillade of fireworks.  Dude.  Glad they work and all, but NOW?  And then came round after round after round of what I'll call mortar fire.  Dear lord, it was loud, and it just kept going.  How the people inside the houses next to him stood it, I do not know.

Crashes

 In the middle of last night, a big crash woke me (and Tap) up.  My first thought was that someone in Equine Alley had come unmoored.  It was, however, this, from a  bedroom wall.

Still equine, I realize, but in a much, much heavier frame than anything in the hall.  It somehow managed not to damage the antique phonograph from Dale's parents that it hangs over.  It also didn't nick the frame or break the glass.  I doubled up the nails when I re-hung it.

Every Heat Advisory Day this week has been forecast to have a Severe Thunderstorm Night following it, but nothing yet.  It, if it comes, may be a rain that just makes the days more humid, instead of cooler.  Are any of you getting relief?

Heat

 It's hot here, I'm sure it's hot where you are, and July has only begun.  I try not to have the air conditioning churning constantly, so Tap gives me the cues.  When he goes over and lies down in front of an air vent, the A/C needs to be turned on, or its setting taken down.  

It's our own little system, and it works okay for us.