Lazy Days of Summer

The camps have ended and the kids are sleeping in. They actually were looking forward to a week with no obligations, and they have advised me that it is my job this week to take them to the pool as much as possible. They want to see their friends and they want to stay in their PJs as much as possible as well. So, I'm wondering, the ideal week would be one in which they could meet their friends at the pool and swim in their PJs? I dunno. We'll see what we can do, I told them.

The play for Catgirl's drama camp was adorable. When we come to the big family wedding in a couple of weeks, we will bring much video for everyone's viewing pleasure: we have the play and the 95 degree piano recital from June.

New socks!
I'm working on these for this week's deadline in the Summer of Socks:

This is the first sock; the second is almost done as well. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the Baltic Sea colorway, and it is wonderful to knit. It is very soft and the colors are gorgeous. I don't know how well the yarn will hold up over time, but right now I am in love with these socks. I used the Fern Leaf Lace stitch from More Sensational Knitted Socks, and the sportweight heel from Wendy's standard recipe.

In other sock news, I finished the first and am chugging along on the second Boyfriend Sock. It looks great, but the dark color of the yarn and the small needles make it a little less attractive to work on at times. I did forsake it for a while, turning to the Fern Leaf Lace socks, but I do want to finish it soon. I ripped out the Lotus Toes toe. Couldn't make it work for anything. I'll try again later. The Seaweed socks are proceeding very slowly because the yarn is really not my cup of tea.

The Jungle
The garden has reached that point in the summer where it would be more accurately described as a vegetable jungle.

The tomato plants have gone crazy and the zucchini plants churning out a zucchini every day. Even the broccoli plants still are giving me little florets here and there. I need to rip them out, but the guinea pig is enjoying their continued production for the time being. I planted bush beans, but the same varmint that ate all my chard in the spring is eating the bean leaves. As in the spring, said varmint is eating only that one thing and nothing else. Why?!

"Put on the Murder, Mom."
I downloaded the audiobook version of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express to listen to in the car with the kids and they are really into it. They make me pause the playback every few minutes so they can update me on how their theories have changed in light of the new evidence Poirot has obtained. It's a lot of fun. It's interesting for me, already knowing the ending, in that I am hearing a lot more real clues early on in the book than I remember noticing when I read it all those years ago. I loved Agatha Christie books when I was younger, but I became angry with her at times because it seemed like there was no way that readers could solve her mysteries. We just did not have all the onformation that Hercule Poirot had--at least until he would hold his big "this is how it all happened" conference at the end of the book. But I must admit, there are a few little tidbits of information dropped early on in this book, if you know what you are looking for.

I just found out that I was one of the winners in a contest on the Mason Dixon Knitting blog--I'm going to get a signed copy of their new book when it comes out in September! I am very excited; I loved their first book. And I won something! Woohoo! Ok, gushing over. :o)