Thursday, April 30, 2009

Spring is here

It's been so long since I last posted. I had to get a post in today because it's the last day of April and I did not want to skip a whole month between postings. So this post may be a bit sloppy, but at least it is still April, right?

April has been rather weird as far as the weather goes. It's probably been weird in other ways, but the weather is on my mind these days. We had some wintry days, some ridiculously summery days, and some spring days. Rain has plagued the kids' sports schedules, and our vacation to Harper's Ferry WV.

Harper's Ferry was neat, but it would probably be a lot more fun in the summer, when you can take advantage of the river rafting. We did manage to have a good time, despite the rain and the chilly temperatures. We biked one day, hiked to the top of Maryland Heights one day to get a great view of the little town below, got in a little letterboxing one day, and hung out with Leslie and Frank at our, um, interesting lodgings.

Here is Catgirl at Jefferson Rock (with raincoat over her Easter dress):
Jefferson Rock
We had an interesting moment up there by Jefferson Rock. You may notice that the Rock is perched on pillars to hold it steady. This is because the wind and weather have eroded it so significnantly that the Army Corps of Engineers decided it was unsafe without some kind of support. Hence the table legs, and the large sign nearby (not in my photo) explaining the situation and asking people to refrain form climbing up there on or by the rock.

Well. After we took our sedate, rule-following photo of Catgirl in front of the rock, another family climbed up and blatantly ignoring the sign not to mention good sense and let their flip-flop clad young-uns climb up ON TOP of this precariously perched rock for a photo op. We all stared and muttered, not quite sure what to do. Is it our place to tell such people that they are idiots?

Here are both kids running up the stone steps to the church. These steps were carved over 100 years ago into the rock that makes up the mountain the town is built on--very cool:
Stone Steps

Mathboy resting at the top of Maryland Heights, overlooking the town;
Maryland Heights 2

We had some good news regarding Mathboy's school prospects for next year: he got in to Doane Academy, and they are OK with him going into 8th grade. Mathboy should definitely have a challenging year with the 8th grade work and the adjustment to a traditional school envieronment (e.g., homework, uniforms, moving around from class to class, and did I mention homework?).

I also got a lot of knitting done this month. It was chilly enough Easter morning for Mathboy to wear his new wool vest:
Dr G Memory Vest

And I worked on this little sweater for Catgirl while we were in Harper's Ferry. It was a quick knit, my first top-down creation.
DSCN0801_edited
I basically improvised this by building off a shrug I am making for myself (the Lemongrass Bolero by Stephanie Japel) and a little girl's shrug from the new Mason-Dixon Knitting book. Based on my experience making this little thing and the Lemongrass Bolero--which is now done as well, but I do not have a good photo--I am not sure I like the top-down thing. And let's be honest: it's the circular needle thing. I do hate working on circs. I'd rather do seams. Really.