Via text, rather late at night:

#1 Son: Hey momma are you awake?

Mom: Yeah. Wazzup?

#1 Son: I got this piece of paper I was using as an earplug stuck in my ear cos I’m at a show. Should I go to the clinic in the morning? It’s seriously stuck up there.

Mom: Yes if you can’t get it out carefully with tweezers or such because you don’t want to damage your eardrum. Be very careful not to poke it in deeper.

#1 Son: I think I already did.

Via phone, shortly after the above:

Mom: Is your ear bleeding? Does it hurt a whole bunch?

#1 Son: No. No bleeding and it doesn’t really hurt.

Mom: I think it’s safe to wait until morning. Until then just leave it alone and don’t mess with it. If it starts bleeding go to the emergency room. Dare I ask why you weren’t using regular earplugs?

#1 Son: I usually use toilet paper but there wasn’t really any so I just used a wad of paper.

Mom: Go to the clinic in the morning. Then get some ear plugs.

Gentle reader, I tell you, I am reminded of the time when #1 Son was about 3 years old and he stuffed an entire, 2-ply Kleenex up his nose until the only way you could tell it was there was by peering up his nostril. He was very proud of himself, and the doctor was quite impressed. Upon extraction, it proved to be a pretty big wad. I really thought those days were long behind me.

I am happy to report that the folks at the clinic, according to #1 Son, appeared to be vastly amused.

Me? Not so much.

theater marquee

Something about this sign struck me, and so I had to stop and snap a pic of it.

I really hope that this is not a sign of the times. But, given the current economic and political climes, I greatly fear it is.

Aye, chihuahua, indeed.

Kristie suggested calling these the Basket Of Spanish Lavendar socks. And Kathy voted for Basket Wave socks. I like both of those suggestions and can’t choose between them, so I am combining and calling these socks the Spanish Lavender Basket Wave socks.

Ah… I feel so much better when the socks on my needles gain a name. Silly, I know, but that’s when I know I’m going to actually finish them, and it just feels like all is right with the world.

I thought you might be interested in seeing how the sole side is vaguely striping in a sort of diagonal-ish way. STR, it seems, is never truly random. But I like the way the colors are combining. So — basketweave on left, stockinette on right.

I’m about 1/2 of a pattern repeat away from starting the gusset increases. It will be interesting to see how this yarn reacts over the gussets. I haven’t decided if I should knit the heel turns and flaps from the opposite end of the yarn to not disturb the non-pattern. Or what stitch I should use on the heel. Eye Of Partridge, maybe.

Decisions, decisions.

I’m really having a lot of fun knitting these. Which reminds me that I really had a lot of fun knitting the other pair of basketweave socks. The change I made to the toes on this pair makes for a better fit. And with such a short pattern repeat, it really feels like I’m getting somewhere. So maybe I should knit this stitch pattern more often, eh? But then I’d probably get tired of it. 🙄

And speaking of sock progress . . .

The other day I was minding my own business, knitting away at Tangle, when I heard Alice call from the back room: Judy, do you want to see our new sock yarn?

That’s kind of a silly question, isn’t it?

I will reveal nothing until the yarn actually gets here. But I will say that it’s scrumptious, out of the ordinary, and there’s a colorway that I think will be just perfect for my Sockapalooooza pal. And there may also be a really awesome lime green that might find a home in my collection. Just maybe.

When the yarn is in hand, then I’ll decide what to do with it. We shall see.

I notice that there are a lot of Sockapaloooozers who have already started their socks. Mine will probably be the next pair on my needles. But I have until August 2 to mail them. Tons of time. (famous last words) So the sidebar is now counting down to 08/02/07 instead of Christmas. We’ll see if that keeps me honest.

A survey apparently finds Portland the city with the friendliest drivers. Are they driving on the same roads I do?

P.S. I hope all of you moms out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I had breakfast with my former MIL and it was fun. #1 Son is in Canada, but he remembered to call, and that was wonderful, too. Can’t wait to have him home again.

As LT and I sat, drinking coffee along the Streets Of Tanasbourne, a cow wearing a red and black dress and a string of blue pearls walked by our table. I have no idea why.

Disturbingly enough, I think it was a guy in that costume.

I think this one will have to be filed under the keeping Portland weird heading.

I blame the blurry, bad shot on surprise. OK… and maybe too much coffee.

And yes, Alice, the Trekking socks are done. (C’mon… I know you’re checking.)

I didn’t get them finished before midnight, that’s true. I made a valiant effort, but fell asleep in my chair and woke up to hear the bell tolling the witching hour. Unfortunately it was one of those times when I didn’t continue knitting in my sleep, and there was still about an inch of ribbing on the top to do.

I finished them up this morning.

They’re a simple 4×1 rib, with a 1×1 rib at the top. The heel flaps are in heel stitch, with garter edges. I used my standard sock no-pattern.

It might be better that I didn’t keep knitting. Sometimes when I do that I wake up to find that I’ve been knitting an entirely different object than I was knitting when I nodded off. But ribbing… maybe I could have handled that.

I have cast on the pair of men’s socks that are next on the Socktober list. I think I might do the Father and Son Socks in the Fall, 2006 issues of Interweave Knits.

Except backwards, of course.

15 days to finish this pair… and the race is on!

This is a little snapshot that I like to call Big, burly guy with chainsaw cutting down tree before it falls on my house.

I mean, what’s not to like about this picture? I’ve been pretty much obsessing about these trees for 10 years. It was inevitable that they would fall. I’m happy about the following things:

• The trees didn’t fall on my house or damage my property in any way.
• Nobody was hurt.
• Nothing was damaged that can’t be repaired.
• MNTHD (my neighbor two houses down) has seen the light and is removing the remaining tree.
• I got to meet my neighbor three houses down (they are semi-new to the neighborhood).

If you click on the pick, you’ll see that PI boasts a new photo-popup script that lays the picture over the contents of the current window rather than popping it up in a new window. It’s not only cool because, well, it looks cool. It’s cool because it will re-size the popped-up picture so that it fits in your browser. It appears to be working pretty well in IE and Firefox. Opera… well… the two of you who are using Opera can at least see the little picture. Anyone out there on a Mac, let me know how if it works in your browser, please!

And, yes, I’m knitting, too. Yesterday I made little field trip to Woodland Woolworks in search of inspiration for my Sockapalooza pal’s socks. And I found it in the form of some wonderful yarn that I will tell you more about later, but here’s a hint. Now I just have to find the perfect pattern!

I also got started on the green Socks That Rock socks. I’ve decided on a pin-wheel toe, and I’m just about finished with that part. I have no pics yet, but I plan to get some serious knitting in during the Super Bowl.

I usually find the Super Bowl to be a bunch of really cool ads hung together by annoying little bits of football. But, this year… what can I say but GO SEAHAWKS!

A couple of months ago I wrote about the two large Douglas firs belonging to MNTHD (my neighbor two houses down), and the possibility that I would end up in bed with one of them some dark and blustery night.

I hate it when I’m proven semi-prophetic.

Last night when I got home, I thought that one of the trees looked like it was leaning at a slightly different angle. Now it’s at a really different angle! (click the pic for a bigger version in a pop-up)

I didn’t hear the crash, which I understand came about 4:30 AM. When I woke up at 7:30, given the high-wind-warning situation, the first thing I did was look out my bedroom window. I only saw one tree. Now, this isn’t entirely unexpected, given my eyesight. So I put on my glasses. I still only saw one tree standing. So I threw some clothes on and ran out the front door.

Only one came down. And it didn’t come near my house (thank goodness). It hit the house of MNTHD. It smooshed his roof a bit and tore off his gutters. The top 30′ or so broke off and hit the corner of the garage of the next house beyond MNTHD and also did some slight damage to their van. You can see from the pic that my direct neighbor’s fence was pretty well destroyed when the root ball pulled up.

I spoke with the neighbor three houses down, whose garage and van were hit. She had run to MNTHD to make sure that they were OK (they are) and asked about the remaining tree. He said he was

going to have a guy look at it

If you read my earlier entry, you will know that “having a guy look at it” was what he has been promising to do for the last 6 or 8 years while these two trees slowly died. I hope the “guy who looks at it” explains to him that the remaining tree will probably not be standing for long and needs to be removed.

I hope the wind isn’t as bad as predicted!