Playing Card

Spin
spin
spin
fly
as the Jack
flies around the room
giving hair cuts to all
off the walls
off the floor
off the ceiling
out the door
through the hallway
into our class
spin
spin
spinning
past the students
extremely fast
into the face of the unknowing
unsuspecting
unwanting
unhappy
glowing red teacher.

Written by Game Boy, for Language Arts, April 2009, Grade 6.

Still Busy

When it's nice outside, and the boys are in school, and it's the end of the semester, I'm too busy to really blog. This might be good, because then I'm not writing about minutiae. This has been another very busy week.

The Collar has had three funerals since last Saturday, and a fourth is coming up tomorrow. Sunday is the youth Evensong at church, so Game Boy is learning a new song. I've gotten to ride three times this week for about 55 miles this week.

Wednesday (besides being Earth Day) was my 39th birthday. (I don't care who knows.) It was such a nice day--temperatures in the 70's, sunny and beautiful. On top of that, my boys all gave me a great day. Game Boy baked my birthday cake and gave me a gift certificate to the bike shop.

The Wiz bought me a water bottle, which says enjoy the ride and new cycling socks, with a cup of coffee, and a writing on the sole. It makes me smile to know that my socks say things.
The Collar made dinner: grilled steaks, grilled asparagus, fresh steamed broccoli, and baked potatoes. It was so good, and all of us really enjoyed it. For my birthday, he gave me a new jersey and a weather center, because he thought I needed a non-cycling gift. Of course, I'll use that for deciding what to wear when I'm going out or if I can go out. Of course, we'll use it for other decisions.
A really great week and birthday. (Pictures courtesy of Game Boy.)

Random Pictures

One of the souvenirs that we sold at the race were these cowbells. Isn't it great?This is the magnolia tree in front of church on Sunday. Our boys (and an extra) all were climbing in it.
Finally, we had meatloaf last night for dinner. It was supposed to be a flower, but the boys insist it is a starfish. Either way, it was good, because it had more edge on each piece. There wasn't much left.Today I had my bicycle readjusted. The handlebars were too low for me and were causing me pain. After it was adjusted, I went out on the 5 mile route and conquered the hill. Hooray for me! I was also a lot faster today. I upped my speed on that route by 3.6 mph. Amazing how well I can do when I am not fighting the bike.

Scenes From A Race

This weekend was the Tour of Walla Walla. There were 4 stages, but I was only around for two of them. Friday's stage was at Waitsburg. Here are a few pictures from the finish line. It wasn't too cold, but there was a pop up rain shower during part of the race.
Saturday morning was the time trial. The weather was absolutely perfect for riding. I wasn't out on the course, but I was able to get pictures of the start line and the riders warming up from my spot at registration.

Calm

---there is none.

Lent is finished, Holy Week has been celebrated, and Easter came! The Collar survived preaching all of those sermons, and celebrating all the services, and Wiz had his feet washed and washed others' feet for the year.
This week I have the bike race and the Bishop is coming down to visit our parish. This means that I will be running around Waitsburg and Walla Walla and then we get to have dinner with the Bishop and have the vestry and the Bishop over at our house for coffee and dessert. (What should we have?!?) This will be fun, but we will also be exhausted. The next morning we will be having confirmations. It will be a lovely weekend. It might be nice to have a week between Easter and the Bishop's visit though. Or between Easter and the bike race. I think we just had rather interesting timing.

The pictures have nothing to do with anything. They are random Easter pictures of things the boys did last Saturday. I supervised. They're growing up.

So, so soft

A friend is due with her 4th boy any minute now. Theoretically, I'll see her tomorrow so I can give her this.

It's a blanket, made with Knit Picks Crayon yarn, in yellow, orange, green and purple. Knit on size 7 needles. This is a seriously soft blankie.

It's 9 blocks, 6"X7.5", 4 in garter stitch, 4 in stockinette. One is striped, because I thought the center block should be sort of a focal point. Here it is before I added the miter square border. And after I added the border and washed it. Did I mention it is a seriously soft blankie?
See the button and the strip of fabric? I picked up stitches and knit a garter stitch strip, with a button hole. It can be attached now to the handle of the car seat or the stroller, so it won't get lost. I really wanted something like that when I'd had babies, so I figured out how to make one, and now every baby blanket I knit is going to have one.

I'm quite proud of the button hole and loop. :)

Is so

spring, that is.

I can prove it.

See?

Cycling to Oregon

Powerline & Stateline Roads

It's only Tuesday, and I have been out twice this week. Hooray for nice weather!

Today I rode to Oregon because I can (it's 4.5 miles from our front door) and it amuses me to say I rode to Oregon and back.

Yesterday I rode with the Collar. We rode out to Rook's Park and came back via the Mill Creek MUP. When we got back, he told me he was pleased because he never dropped from the big ring. I never even bothered to go off of my middle ring. It just shows that we have different riding styles.

Here are some pictures from today:

the view south further into Oregon

wheatfields in Walla Walla
Cottonwood and Hood Roads, with more not yet growing fieldsThe view of the Blues, past wheatfields

Less Hair

Yes, he's in middle school. Look at the too-cool to smile expression.

Much tidier hair, though.

Lake Bennington

The last time we went to Lake Bennington it was 100 degrees (Fahrenheit). It was not like that today. It was probably about 60.

There were almost no clouds, too. It was a beautiful day. We knew the boys (and the dogs) really needed to go out and run.

A very small boy, enjoying the beautiful day.The spillway, which is rarely wet at all, as far as we can tell.
A boy and his dog. She's pretty well trained and tends to stick to him like glue.
An osprey that we saw on the walk.

You can tell it's one of the first weekend days that has been nice. We saw people outside doing things EVERYWHERE. There were cyclists, skateboarders, walkers, fishermen, soccer players and everyone else. If it's nice tomorrow, I'm hoping to convince the Collar to eat a picnic lunch. (Tomorrow's a big day though, so maybe not.)

If you are a friend of mine on facebook, I posted a bunch more pictures. It's a good thing I've gone digital. :)

Adventures with Game Boy

Game Boy doesn't get to travel with me as often as the Wiz. The Wiz "gets" to go to Seattle for medical treatment and so on. I try to make those fun for him (who likes to have blood drawn?) so Game Boy often feels left out. He and I went on a trip. He decided what we would do.

We went to the Tri Cities (all of 45 minutes away) because he hasn't been there. (Wiz has--his allergist is there.) We stayed a hotel with an indoor pool. We got Mexican food. We got snacks to eat after he swam. We played on the computers (our computers). We slept in and ate breakfast.

Then we drove toward home. However, instead of staying on 12, I took the turn toward Umatilla and we drove down several million years of erosion. It was breath-taking. We drove until we hit Sandpoint Recreation area, and we pulled in to walk around and see the Columbia River up close.Game Boy found some driftwood and mussel shells. And he saw the amazing power of water and rock.I am happy that he's my kid.