a major award

Brax,

Hey, we got tagged! Karida thinks we are rockin.


Now we have to decide who we're going to tag. We will have to deliberate.
-Bruce

P.S. Below is a single-shot representation of how hot it is. Please ignore how dirty my floor is.

A Tropical Heat Wave

Brax,
I have been dim and listless for the last couple of weeks. I have not been feeling quite right. And most unusually, I have been trying to make excuses for it. I've been attributing it to, of all things, the heat. Right. The heat is getting me down. I'm not the kind of person who enjoys sitting in the greenhouse in July. I am not the sort of girl who would, for example, get heat exhaustion from laying on her roof during peak sun hours on the hottest day of the year, because she didn't want to go inside. Suuuuuuuuuuuuure, ten thousand dollars.*

So today I was talking to Karida, and she said, "you know, you're allowed to just be sad."

As it turns out, sometimes you need someone to point out the obvious. Thanks, dude.

So, anyway, between the listlessness, the working, the home improvement and the HP rereading, the knitting has been a little thin on the ground. Fortunately, my cousin and his wife are going to have a baby!!! They are great. They are named Aaron and Erin. I hope they name the baby A-Ron. Just for little A-Ron, I am making the Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I've been making incremental progress. I know, it is supposed to be one of those projects that you finish in 2 days. Go to hell, I am listless. Here it is, though. Half of it, anyway.



It is pretty cool because it looks like a big weird geometry lesson when you're knitting it.


But you just trust the pattern, and fold that sucker over, and it becomes a little cozy kimono. Peaches and Creme cotton in green apple, of course. And only 2 little baby-sized seams to sew!

Here is what is fast becoming my signature shot: Honey trying to get his close up. Honest-to-god, I am not trying to photograph him, he just does this whenever I get the camera out.
OH! I forgot. New bookshelf:



Handsome, yes? That is only half of it. The bottom half is very similar. Of course, the old bookshelf is still holding her own:

Wow, that post was really sporadic and nonlinear, and I sort of have no idea how to wrap up.
WRAPPING IT UP.

Love,
Bruce

*For those of you who do not know the inside jokes of my family, "Suuuuuuuuuure, ten thousand dollars" is what my dad says when someone is full of crap. It dates back to a time when my cousin was about 12 and he kept saying his computer cost $10,000. I don't know. These things get funnier as time passes.

A knitting post? Whaaaaa?

Brucie,

I'm SO impressed with your organizational prowess! I can't wait to see your apartment when I come out there. My yarn, in contrast, is stored in various Kroger bags in various locations throughout the apartment. I'm sure I will get to it someday.

Oscar has found a new favorite food:

That's right, watermelon. How weird is my cat?

I also wanted to show you what Karida sent me...

So exciting! It's a silk-wool blend, and it's the softest thing ever. I'm still deciding what to do with the solid green; I have about 800 yards. There are also 2 skeins of a more olivey, variegated green:

As you can see, I've started a scarf for myself with it. I'm making the "Backyard Leaves" scarf from Scarf Style. Confession time: this is the first time I've knit from a chart before. It took a little while to get used to...but now I'm flying through this scarf. Here is a closeup:

Awesome town! I'm totally keeping it, too. It'll be nice to have a new scarf for myself while I'm knitting everyone else's Christmas and birthday presents this fall.

That's all I got for now. I had a relaxing weekend at home...I mostly cleaned and knit a lot. It's nice not to be travelling every weekend in a row. But at the same time, I'm looking forward to spending Labor Day weekend in Columbus, and going to D.C. at the end of September. Party town, USA!

Love,

Braxie

Organize, Organize, Organize

Brax,
Well, now that I am back in town and working a new job, it is time to get organized.

Where to start? Yarn. Honey likes to help.



That nasty clawed up chair next to the Funnyguy up there? Gone! G'byeeeee! Those jerks will have to use the by-god scratching post from here on out.


Stew pot full of yarn, basket full of yarn, and pile of yarn became Tubs O' Yarn. Awesome. My little "area" next to the couch is so tidy now! A nice basket for my works in progress and a purple box for my more long-term projects. It is a tremendous improvement.

Also, I have purchased a new bookshelf (see you in hell, random stacks of books!). I outgrew my big blue shelf. Ellie, the organization guru, thinks you should get rid of books after you read them. Though I bow to her superior knowledge of organizing, she knows nothing of the hearts of bookworms. In this house, we like to cozy up with the written word, thusly:

OK. This reorganization is going to make the living room much more open, airy, and pleasant. It'll probably make the cats shed less too, and maybe it will hire a maid. At the very least it will mean a little more breathing room, plus no more shifting stacks of books around. I mean, yeah. It will do all those things, provided I get the hell off the internet and actually DO it.

Do it.
Bruce

Some jerk had a birthday.

Hi guys,

Here are the promised pictures from Christopher's birthday party! Here's the birthday boy himself. 21 at last! (He's having his first wine) At this point I was kind of half in the bag already, and I kept calling him "Jack Kerouac."

Things started out innocently enough, with horseplay and drinks in the pool. This is Libby, Libby's cousin Bryce, me, and Tyler.

Bruce lookin' mighty patriotic. Look at all those trees!

Christopher's dad Dave paid some special attention to Matt. Later, Dave picked Matt up after he had dried off and gotten dressed, and threw him bodily into the pool. It was pretty hi-larious, but Matt's cell phone was kind of ruined.

As the night wore on, we continued with our drunken night swimming. At some point, a baby crapped in the pool, and even though it was cleaned out (probably), every time someone fell down, they would yell, "I slipped in shit!" I know it's not funny to you guys, but it was the kind of thing that grew funnier with repetition.

I can only assume this is Barb making one of her signature "blends."

Awww, so cute.

FInally, this picture was taken in the wee hours of the morning. Katie (far left) and Emily had tried to go to the Farm, the local bar, but had almost gotten into a fight because someone insulted Katie's head scarf. Libby is screaming at the paper lady at the end of the driveway that she "can't litter on my parent' s house!" I'm pretty sure I am catatonic at this point.

SO there you have it. I know all these picture were taken 2 and a half weeks ago, but wasn't the wait worth it? Here's another shot of the birthday boy. (yes, that's the baby who crapped in the pool)

Don't worry, we'll get back to current events sometime!

Love, Braxerson

What Libby and I have been waiting for since about 1999

Hi, Everybody!

Okay, this is Part I of "what Bruce and Brax have been up to." I have decided to go in reverse order, starting with the most recent, Harry Potter weekend at last! As you all know, Libby and I are crazy Harry Potter fanatics. The depths of our fandom are eclipsed only by the 15 year olds who write fan fiction and run those Harry Potter websites. Websites which we may or may not check daily.

So, in celebration of the book being released, Libby and I always go out to dinner with Barb (Libby's mom) and a rotating cast of friends and family. After a long, wine-filled dinner, we always go to Joseph Beth's, an independant bookstore in Cincinnati, to get our books. This year, it was me, Libby, Barb, Libby's cousin Topher, Matt, Josh, and Libby's cousin Stephanie, and Stephanie's son Frankie. The drive down to the restaurant was uneventful until Barb hit something on the road, and we heard a loud "Bang!" I asked Barb if she blew a tire, and she said, "I don't know! I'm still rolling!"


Wellll.... Once we got to the restaurant (a good 5 miles down the road), it became clear that Barb had indeed blown a tire. After everyone freaked out about what to do for a second, it became clear that we all needed a drink inside the restaurant. In order to stop Bruce's mom from wandering the streets of Cincinnati looking for fix-it-flat, Josh and I decided to slip back outside and change the tire.

Well, Josh mostly changed the tire. I helped thusly:

Finally, after 45 minutes, the tire was changed, and we were finally seated on the patio. DInner was delicious, and many funny things were said. Unfortunately, the only picure I have is Libby's husband doing this:

Finally, after we were rushed out of the restaurant by the staff, we made our way to Joseph Beth's. Now, I want to preface this by saying that we have always gone to the same store for our books every year, and we have always bought pre-paid vouchers, which have enabled us to walk in at 12:15 or so, and walk right on out with our books. So, imagine our surprise when we showed up at 12:30 to this mess:

Whoa! What a line! We stood here for at least an hour. Here we are, with our vouchers. I have decided to hold my voucher in front of my face and cross my eyes for this picture:

We stood in line so long that we started to sober up, so we sent Matt and Frankie (aged 16) to the gas station on the corner for more wine. Yep, those are some classy dames in that picture. While we brown-bagged the wine, we noticed all the different costumes. All the little kids were dressed up like harry, malfoy, or luna. THe adults, however, had some pretty creative ones, like the guy dressed in a long, flowered nightgown. What a bunch of nerds we are! I had to yell at a handful of bad seeds who were flipping to the end of the book and trying to read the last sentance out loud. I bet they were scared straight.

The rest of the weekend looked like this:

And this (awww, Blanche. She's biting her feet.):

And this is a cute picture of Bruce's family eating breakfast.

Aaaaah, Libby's house. Breakfast town, USA.

Love, Brax

goddamn son of a bitch

We're going to miss you.