Road Trips, Turtles, Knitting, and Salad

Shimmer in Flower Garden color E850
Discouragement has nearly set in -- Nothing is getting finished. There are plenty of reasons why, like driving and taking care of my youngest son's pets for just a few. The road has not been my friend, I have driven a gabazillion miles this week for work. These miles have led to places I hope to never see again - obscure little towns I had never heard of let alone knew existed.


The pets...I LOVE animals and always thought of being a veterinarian, but 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 turtles, 1 fish, 1 hamster, and a flock of Canadian Geese that refuse to quit ruining the yard have done me in. My youngest son - E.A. - has not appeared here yet, but his turtles
are making their debut...We brought the tiny turtles back from vacation for him 2 years ago. He was ecstatic and took very good care of them...for a while. Turtles are nasty and they smell very bad! His room smelled, I cleaned it, it still smelled. After a hesitant phone call, we decided that the turtles would be much happier if they lived in the pond out back. Pictures were promised and we launched the turtles - bon voyage! One problem down.




Darby and Lucy chase the geese away whenever we notice that they are in the yard (geese are more quiet than you might think). Two problems down. No, I didn't make the sweaters.

Waffles the outside cat was sneaky enough to get past BDCH into the house and went after Miss Kitty (inside cat). The result was not pretty (but BDCH's response was) Bugg and I witnessed him chasing after Waffles with a (hee hee hee) rolled up newspaper. Three problems down and I can live with this.
Please note: Actual animals were not maimed or harmed in any way during these events.

Where does this leave my knitting? I've finished all of the parts to the sea shell bag and need to sew 'er up, Egebo is blocked and needs to be sewn together, and my needlepoint stocking is limping along slowly. Indulgence arrived on my doorstep...again...in the form of Shimmer from Knit Picks AND a set of their new convertible needles. The needles are FABULOUS and for under $60 bucks (free shipping, too) you can't beat them. They are smooth and fast and not grainy at all. HONEST, they aren't paying me to say this!

The companion yarn was chosen during last weekend's road trip to Thread Bear. They didn't have a pink that would work and I substituted a violet-blue instead. Honest, I only bought 5 balls (EXACTLY what I needed) and ONE pattern. Stitcher Bomb is lined up for my first crochet lesson next Friday - wooohooo!

What does salad have to do with any of this? Nothing, really. Bugg just made a salad and thought it looked beautiful like the ones that BDCH make for her all of the time so we took a picture