You knew it all along, didn't you? People in such turmoil think that making a grand escape is the way to handle things, taking equity from an inflated housing market and plopping it into a different kind of lifestyle in a different area. Fine if you are 30 or even 40 but tomorrow is Double Nickels Day, the time when the body starts to tell a person that they are no longer members of the firm skin generation and that they had just better learn to deal with it. (you youngsters can just put your fingers in your ears right now cuz it will never happen to you. ) We went shopping yesterday...took each other shopping for new clothes, since it is birthday week for both of us. I enjoyed the heck out of the outing to Walnut Creek, which has become a pretty toney destination...far from its humble roots of a sleepy walnut orchard town. (You know that someplace is doomed when Tiffany's moves in. Hah!) We got a kick out of people watching and joined the throngs at the Apple Store, which to The Husband is powered by some sort of magnetic field...come innnnnnnnn and shoppppppppp. We escaped without giving them any new money but got a kick out of watching box after box of the new IPod Nano's go out the door with excited people. They are pretty darned cool, I must say. So, I sez to The Husband while watching some well toned, stilletto heeled woman follow her perfectly dressed children and fancy husband to their Cha-ching-mobile...look dear, he has Arm Candy and you have Arm Jello...enough said. We have each other.
So, back to staying in the Frappucino house. The Husband is readying the ground on the side yard for a miniature version of the red barn that I fell for, lo so many months ago at a property we let go of. He has built a retaining wall out of those HEAVY concrete building block things that are holding up hillsides everywhere and is getting into shape by hoisting these things in and out of the BAV and out to their final resting place.
Tank has tried to be ever so helpful by enticing his friend and cohort Sasha to rough-house on daddy's dirt. Soon there will not be such a socker field to rocket around...it will be filled with a little building. So there. Rocket, race, jump...bash. Hey, where did THAT come from?!
He was helping in his own special way, this canine himbo. (I'm sorry folks but this dog that bends in the middle to wag his whole ass is not the brightest dog on the planet...a Lab.) Oh yeah, and why do they do this?
Granted, he has proven to be a termite sniffer but he is not snacking on termites. Blech. Four star cat poop. Oy.
Yes, I have been knitting and spinning. I have a commission for a representation of the Desert Cardie that went home with someone at the last show but since these colorwork sweaters are part new solid color skeins and lots of bits of treasured handspun, no two can be alike, simply because once those bits are gone I must invest in my own stash by taking something from the handspun bin. Bits and pieces of treasured angora and cashmere are what I like to use for touches in these garments, to delight and surpise the wearer. So, Desert II is merely an interpretation of Desert I, with the addition of requested rust to the mix. You can see the progress as I putter along.
Seeing it from this squinting distance (too often viewed too closely, one must squint to test the values), I really like it and know that my client will be well dressed this year at the Cowboy Poet Festival.
Love the Sweater2! Rod's made a lot of progress on the shed base - woohoo to him!
Can't go wrong with cat poop, always a favorite at dog parties.
Posted by: Kerry | October 03, 2005 at 09:25 AM
Oh Lisa, Arm Jello, I'm laughing so hard. I actually hate Jello so if there actually was an Arm im my life I'd become Arm Pudding...
I'm impressed with Rod's building prowess. I have three words for him but I'm sure he already knows them: Good. Flashing. Termites. Ask me how I know...
I once lived with a black lab with similar taste in edibles. Eww. There's a big word for it: coprophage. There's a small word for it: gross.
Posted by: CarolineF | October 03, 2005 at 09:28 AM
Yeah, baby, yeah. Coproprophage, thanks Caroline, I am always looking for fabulous new words to dazzle the neighbors. Sasha loved it when I layered the garden with my neighbor Cindy's horse foo foo. I just hate the breath...get away from me with that stuff...no kisses for YOU! I'll have to remember that when next I throw a dog playdate, Kerry. Party hats and kitty poo.
This building is going to be erected by some dudes other than The Husband. He built the Bunny Barn years ago and it sits on blocks. We have a guy that comes around, collects $100 and pretends to be checking for termites, every three months. This thing will not sit on the ground and has a metal base. Oh yeah and the wall chewer sez that he should go to work for the government because he can smell a termite a mile away...well, maybe it is the termite poop...he has an affinity for finding old termite wood or burrowing through walls to get at it...you all remember The Wall...
Posted by: Lisa S | October 03, 2005 at 09:41 AM
Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: elizabeth | October 03, 2005 at 10:10 AM
Happy birthday to both of you! Goodness, did you hear me laughing? How about...arm ganache? Here, I'll bring you one of my chocolate decadence cakes made with 40% superduper heavy cream, and you can find out what I mean. Hang on, let me go get some candles first...
Posted by: AlisonH | October 03, 2005 at 11:56 AM
Arm jello! I've had my laugh of the day. I can't wait to lay that one on my Rod. Desert II is looking mighty fine, and that barn-building skein-winding man of yours is a keeper. Happy birthday to you both!
Posted by: Melanie | October 03, 2005 at 12:43 PM
wow, 2 tank photos in one day, how did i get so lucky? desert II sounds like a space program. the colors are deliscious. happy birthday to the both of you! don't worry, arm candy man will lose the bling when candygirl finds a bigger daddy warbucks ;-)
Posted by: vanessa | October 03, 2005 at 04:24 PM
your lab sounds like buddy the idiot dog in the tail wagging department. i am glad to hear that you are staying right where you are. have a wonderful birthday, and you don't look any where near the double nickel milestone.
Posted by: marti | October 03, 2005 at 04:35 PM
Love that little touch of blue in Desert II. It looks like a little hint of the sky, or maybe a watery mirage. Hope you have a great birthday!
Posted by: Vicki S | October 03, 2005 at 05:01 PM
I'll never be Arm Candy, but I'm pretty happy with my Arm :)
Desert II is looking very nice - the best bit is I don't even have to squint, I just look over the top of my glasses!
Posted by: Angela | October 03, 2005 at 05:04 PM
This made me laugh:
"So, I sez to The Husband while watching some well toned, stilletto heeled woman follow her perfectly dressed children and fancy husband to their Cha-ching-mobile...look dear, he has Arm Candy and you have Arm Jello...enough said. We have each other."
Yeh Lisa, old shoe comfort beats out stilletto-induced backache any day of the week. And you can be darn sure there are moments when Ms. TightlyToned wants to take one of those stillettos off of her aching foot and bury its well-heeled heel in her husband's heart. (Is that alliteration?)
You're the real deal girl - the kind of jello that holds up beautifully well beyond the botox, silicone and carefully sculpted hips. You've got a twinkle in your eye, a smile on your lips, the gift of artistry in your soul and a guy who'll help you wind your yarn. All of which is so much more attractive than the artificially constructed perfection of Ms. Nipped and Tucked and Plucked and Sucked.
Physical perfection is interesting sometimes as a sideshow curiosity but like candy, it doesn't satisfy for very long. Gotta have that thing going on in the heart Lisa - that's what satisfies.
And you've got it going on in spades. Yum.
(And you thought I liked you only for your cashmere? Cashmere shmashmere - without you it's just another thing the goat left behind.)
Posted by: Tom | October 04, 2005 at 09:57 AM