Perhaps Little Cow found that the grass wasn’t really greener on the other side of the pasture fence. Perhaps Little Cow became lonely and missed me. Perhaps Little Cow heard that I’d found a new little cow companion and jealously decided to break up a cozy twosome.

Perhaps I finally got caught up on my laundry and found Little Cow in a pair of jeans buried at the bottom of the laundry basket.

Which do you think is the correct answer?

I’m just glad that Little Cow is home. My mini-herd of mini-cows is posing here in front of a clump of daylilies that just started blooming. They both look pleased, don’t you think?

Moo Cow (#1 Son’s cat, that is) is sulking because I didn’t believe she was innocent.

No, you are not allowed to go back into PI history to see how long it’s been since Little Cow went missing and thus figure out how far behind I was on my laundry. Let’s just say that, while I am not going naked into the world every morning, it’s maybe been a little while since I’ve seen the actual bottom of that basket. Let’s just leave it at that.

… there’s a rainbow…

I shot this pic last Thursday from a parking structure downtown. We don’t see the sun that often this time of year. It had been soggy all week, and then the sun broke through on the west side, although it was still raining to the east. And there between the buildings was a rainbow.

Do click on the picture to see the bigger version.

It’s Rose Festival now, or will be starting in a few days. We are, therefore, guaranteed rain for at least the next couple of weeks. But today the sun is shining, and ya gotta love it.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday! I had a very quiet holiday, although I did see a few friends. #1 Son is in and out and not much in evidence. He’s trying to get everything ready for the next tour, different band, starting soon.

This is what I worked on during the weekend. It’s a super-secret project. One of those just gotta try it, but will never admit it if it doesn’t work projects. So the picture is just a hint. I think it’s going to work.

Any guesses on what this is? Or, any guesses on what it should be? 😀

No progress on any other project. In fact, you can see that I haven’t even managed to get the page up for the Tipsy Knitter socks. It was a lazy weekend.

I need one of those every now and then.

I dreamed last night that I wrote a book. Not a book about knitting or something geeky. A book about my childhood. About growing up in my normal family.

At least I thought we were pretty normal. My college roommate once said to me, You had a brain-damaged dachshund, an alcoholic canary and you used to leave the door open when you went on vacation. There was nothing normal about your family. Well… OK… that’s a different perspective. It all seemed pretty normal to me.

But I have absolutely no desire to write a book about anything, let alone my childhood.

In my dream, I’d managed to write a title (don’t remember it now) and put my name under it. And I searched on the web for advice on how a manuscript should be formatted. And then I ran around asking all of my relatives, What do you remember about this event or that person or yadda yadda yadda. And then I told everybody I knew that I was writing a book. And they were all impressed.

Clearly it was a very strange dream because, as I said I have no desire to write a book. But mostly because I can’t imagine anybody I know either being impressed by it or actually thinking I could pull it off.

So I wonder what this dream is really about?

I had dinner last night with my friend L, who then indulged me with a visit to Teavana. And there I gifted myself with this little teapot. It grabbed my attention right away. I was struck by its organicness. A little “teapot symbology” flier in the shop said that lizards are a symbol of living strong. L, bless her, said that’s you and nodded. I made monkey picked oolong tea in it last night. The tea was very good.

L and I had a wonderful chat. Our last topic was children, and how hard it is to see them launch even though that is what, as parents, we work towards. Her children have launched. My is launching. It seems strange. This year, for the first time, I face taking a vacation without #1 Son. I’m OK with that. I do things by myself or with friends all the time. But I haven’t taken a vacation without #1 Son since he was born. I’m OK with it. But it seems strange. I guess that’s why I’ve been a little blue lately.

And maybe that dream wasn’t about my childhood at all. Maybe it was about holding on to our own children’s childhoods and not forgetting. Write it down. Take pictures. So we can remember after they’ve launched. We can remember what we had and let it blend with what we have, because what we have is good, too. Just different.

And, yes, I’m knitting. But I’m not knitting much. Perhaps I can finish the Tipsy Knitter socks during Lost tonight. I only have about 1 pattern repeat and the ribbing left.

I know that it’s really summer (no matter what the calender says) when the lavender starts to bloom.

This is a Spanish lavender — I don’t remember the variety name. I grow several varieties of lavender, and this is the first to bloom.

Bumblebees love the lavender, as do honeybees. That’s a bumble in the top picture (they’re my favorites) and a honeybee in the bottom pic. I can often find our native bees visiting also. When the butterfly bush is also in bloom all of the bees really go to town!

I can also tell that it’s summer because the temperature was over 90 today. As far as I’m concerned, that just plain too hot. But I know it will ripen the cherries and bring a blush to the strawberries and give the grapes a little boost. So I’m not complaining.

Not much anyway.

But it’s way too hot to knit on a sweater. Way too hot. Right? So what would you do? That’s right, I cast on a second pair of socks. I started Mermaid sock toes, using Lorna’s Laces in a colorway called Rainbow. It’s really bright. I’m not far enough into them to decide if I like them or not. We’ll see.

Remembering the Mermaid socks I started last year and then ripped out because they were too huge, I did something I never do — I swatched. Hopefully I’ve got the gauge right this time. Pics in a day or two if I decide to keep them going.

#1 Son is in town but not around much. For some reason, after being gone for 3 weeks he thinks it’s more important that he hang with his friends than with his mom! Go figure! 😆 I don’t mind at all. I’m just glad to be able to call him on the phone and know he’s within 10 miles or so.

I had a very nice thank you card today from my Sockapaloooza recipient Lynne. You’re welcome, Lynne! I enjoyed the experience very much.

To Sockpal, if you are listening… I hope my socks survived their washing and have not gotten lost on the way here. Perhaps they are out gallivanting around with my little cow tape measure that disappeared? P.S. Also hope everything is OK with you?

I received the best Mothers’ Day present ever at 8:30 AM this morning when #1 Son walked in the door. I’m so glad to have him home!

After giving me a big hug, he said,

Hey, Mom, did you hear I’ve been in Alaska? I need to do laundry.

All is right with the world. 🙂

In techie news, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.0.2. I decided to wait awhile until most of the bugs had been shaken out. I think there may still be a couple of issues… but we’ll see.

Please let me know if you see anything “broken” or weird looking.

This is why I love my Prius — or it’s one of the reasons, anyway. This is what the “info” display in the Prius showed when I got to work yesterday.

See that, down at the bottom towards the left? That’s right my friends — 60 MPG! 60 Click on the pic so you can see it close up.

Granted I’d only gone 8 miles on this tank of gas, but still 60 MPG is 60 MPG.

Since then it’s settled down to its more normal 50 MPG.

That’s right, you read that correctly. I usually get 50 MPG. I’ll try not to rub it in too much.

And this is Little Cow II. I brought him home last night. His barn is the knitting bag you see right behind him. He is being permanently corralled there. He will not be wandering away to spend time with his missing buddy.

Not if I can help it that is.

And, yes, I know that anything called “cow” is properly a “she.” I really do know the he/she/it terms for our bovine friends. This just looks like a “he.” Don’t know why. I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that it’s hard to find and keeps disappearing…

I’ve turned the second heel on the Tipsy Knitter socks and I’m almost done with the second heel flap. Then it’s around and around and around again until I get sick of it and decide we’re done. I’ll post another pic when I get further up the ankles. I like the heel flaps now.

#1 Son should be home on Mother’s Day! That will be the best Mother’s Day present ever!