Tom Petty Concert

I think this may qualify for the "Saturday Sky" series:

This is a crowd and sky shot of the Clark County Ampitheater on the north side of Vancouver before the Tom Petty Concert. And here is the family listening to Trey Anastasio of Phish (who was the opening act) and eating cotton candy:

Obligatory knitting shot. The knitting started on the ride to the ampitheater, and continued through the opening act and the first part of Tom Petty. While I was sitting and knitting and watching the crowd before the sun set, I was starting to feel a little cranky with the twenty-somethings, who were louder, drunker, and smoked more than the rest of us. After all, they were born after a lot of those songs were recorded, what could they know about Tom Petty? Shouldn't they have stayed home and waited for something from their generation they actually cared about? Then it started to get dark and they were changing out the stage getting ready for the main act and the boy behind me started going ape-shit, in a genuinely excited (if drunken) way. "It's gonna happen, Man, TOM PETTY is gonna come out here and sing. He's gonna come out here and sing all those songs we've been hearing our WHOLE LIVES." I decided to cut the twenty-somethings some slack after that.

See! Tom Petty! We had lawn seats and were sitting pretty far back,but he sounded like Tom Petty, and those giant screens sure make concerts more interesting for the distance-challenged concert-goer (we have decided James has Tom-Petty-hair---James claims Tom Petty has James-hair, but we told him no, Tom Petty did it first.) So Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play some old stuff and some new stuff and they sound great and tight, this is their 30th Anniversary tour and they are in good form---they aren't geezer-rockers yet by a longshot. Most people are standing, and I'm sitting on the grass and knitting and trying to get glimpses of the big screen between drunken, dancing people when Tom Petty announces he would be bringing out someone who has been an honorary Heartbreaker since 1978, and out floats STEVIE NICKS. How COOL is that?!

The blond blur on the right is Tom Petty, and the blonde blur on the left is STEVIE NICKS. Don't think I wasn't excited to see Tom Petty, but I bought a ticket to see Tom Petty, I was expecting to see Tom Petty. Stevie Nicks was a complete surprise and I threw down the knitting (mid-row!) and stood for the rest of the concert. Wow.

On taking two middle school age kids to a concert. . . It helps that John has been working for years to warp the kids in his own image and some of it has stuck. This is their third rock concert. We had to leave early from Cheap Trick when they were quite small (bummer. . .it was a small venue, we had great seats, and the band was awesome) because James and Audrey planted their hands over their ears and shouted "Can we go home yet?!" the whole time. We saw Heart a couple of years ago and they amused themselves by playing some sort of tag game in the empty seats in the rafters of the old ampitheater at the Clark County Fairgrounds. James was actually appreciative of the Tom Petty concert and Audrey liked it okay, but was cold and sleepy and the smell of smoke made her gag. There is no better place to talk to kids about drugs and alcohol than in the general admission seats of a major rock concert. We had a good time.

My husband thinks I need to explain about the blurry nighttime photos. Harumph. The pictures are blurry, not because I was full of $8 beers, but because the digital camera has a v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y, s--l--o--w shutter speed in low light settings, and I do not have the ability to hold as still as an Olympic sharp-shooter. If I did I would break the no-guns-in-the-house rule and BE an Olympic sharp-shooter, because that would be cool.

Show and Tell

Share your sugar bowl (via Suse at Pea Soup):

When John's dad moved from Kentucky to Texas we acquired the Fresh-O-Lator in the shedding of possessions that goes along with moving. Kentucky was my first experience with living in a humid climate, and I had been grossed out by the musty smell that sugar would pick up in the dampness. The Fresh-O-Lator solved that problem, and has had sugar in it non-stop ever since. It holds a five pound bag of sugar, is convenient enough for spooning into tea or cereal, and is big enough to scoop out of for baking. I've purchased a couple more on e-Bay in varying stages of condition, but this is the original.

This is what gets used for company, or occasions when I have to schlep the coffee to a meeting at school. It's my only Wedgwood, these two pieces of Countryware. We got them in exchange at a liquidator in Phoenix when we returned a non-functional piece of stereo equipment we had purchased. They didn't offer refunds, but when they said we could have store credit, I already knew what I wanted. They are perfect, and I like to hold them.

Now I can pursue my dream of being a psychic

Your Aura is Blue

Spiritual and calm, you tend to live a quiet but enriching life.You are very giving of yourself. And it's hard for you to let go of relationships. The purpose of your life: showing love to other people Famous blues include: Angelina Jolie, the Dali Lama, Oprah Careers for you to try: Psychic, Peace Corps Volunteer, Counselor

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorisyourauraquiz/">What Color Is Your Aura?

The Yarn Harlot was in Mesa, Arizona yesterday, and had a terrific post about it. I was born in Mesa and most of the my extended family still lives there. I spent 8.5 years of my adult life in Phoenix, before moving up to the NW. I miss my friends and family. I don't miss the heat. I don't miss the way it largely looks like the surface of the moon. I don't miss the traffic or the pollution.

When John was still in medical school in Kentucky we watched Kindergarten Cop, and I can distinctly remember telling John it was gorgeous where the movie was made, and I wanted to live there. Later when we lived in Phoenix and took our first trip to the Pacific Northwest we went to Astoria, Oregon where Kindergarten Cop and The Goonies were filmed. We decided we didn't necessarily want to live in Astoria, but we fell in love with the region. We took a couple more vacations up here, and decided this is where we wanted to relocate and put down roots. I love living in my favorite vacation spot. After 5.5 years I'm still infatuated and continue to be amazed A) that it's as beautiful as it is, B) that I actually live here, and C) that everyone else doesn't live here, too (let's face it, Phoenix is too hot for human habitation.)

We are getting ready to visit our friend Missy, who also moved to her favorite vacation spot. The difference is she was from here (well, Kelso) and moved to Maui. She seems to be just as happy with her decision as we are with ours. We are looking forward to seeing her and her family, and getting a taste of her favorite places.

In getting ready for the trip there's been a lot of laundry, shopping for socks and sunscreen and planning, and not much else. I do have great plans for the vacation, though. I mean to use all of these:

I want to knock out a scarf for the Pink Scarf Project:

I want to work on this (which I had originally intended to be a bookmark, but changed my mind):

And back in June when Vicki at Turkey Feathers began "Finish What You Start" I had intended to work on this:

This is the dresser scarf I bought at an antique store which started a vintage-embroidery-to-finish buying frenzy which has yet to yield any finished objects. Someone had started it with HUGE stitches in orange. I've made a good start on the other side:

It looks to me like the perfect sitting on the beach activity. Now, if I can just convince the family a good vacation should include some sitting, I'll be in good shape. I'm predicting a very good time.

On Thursdays during the summer. . .

If you stand the northern corner of my front yard and look up the street you can see the north end of Lake Sacajawea, which is a two mile long lake, surrounded by park and walking/biking path.

There are three playgrounds, two fountains, a Japanese garden, a place to hold the 4th of July logging competition, a couple of docks to fish for trout from, and on Thursdays during the summer (after the 4th of July) we can wander down for a free concert at Martin's Dock. Today James and I went to see Molly's Revenge, a Celtic band from California, perform.

The temperature was perfect, the crowd was congenial, the music was good. There are definitely worse ways of spending a Thursday evening.

There is nearly always a good turn-out for the concert series, though the older folks will leave early if the music is too loud. If you live in the area, you will run into people you know, it's quite the social event, and the music is almost secondary. Can you make out the lavendar gift bag belonging to the lady in the lower right of the picture? Shortly before I took this picture she had taken a stack of fat-quarters out of it to show her girlfriends the colors of her latest quilt.

Even the walk home was pleasant.

I think I'll go lie down and take a nap now

Have I mentioned how much I don't want to have to deal with this?

And let me add that the latch on the rear door of the mini van has broken (one very few things I can fault Toyota on is the plastic door latches,) so everything has to be hauled in and out of the side door. I am also very sore from rafting and spelunking. I can unload the camping gear, or . . .

Heavy Decorative Object

Rebecca (with her awesome blog at http://ewedevil.com) posted some nifty thrifted objects, including a brass rabbit, which I admit that I covet. I'm not a big knick-knack person, but I do admire a good, heavy decorative object--one suitable for whacking intruders with, should the occasion arise. Here is my designated object, the one I will hopefully remember to brandish as a weapon in the face of a burglar, rather than cowering and making funny noises--which is far more likely.

Happy Trees!

I grew up watching how-to shows on PBS during the summer. We watched a lot of Bob Alexander and then Bob Ross painting shows, along with Yan Can Cook and a number of others. James and Audrey carry on the tradition, sprawled on the couch echoing Ross's running commentary about "Happy Trees" which live here or there.

We just got back from a two-day camping trip with Bob Ross-esque views:

We camped for two nights up in the Gifford Pinchot national forest with family friends and took a two hour white water rafting trip on the White Salmon River. Beautiful, beautiful place. No rafting pics to post because of the hydophobic nature of digital cameras (I've wiped out two this year, and I'm not allowed any more.) The part of the park we were in boasted an ice cave, natural bridges and huckleberries (which were just starting to ripen at the lower elevations.) This is one of the natural bridges:

There were very few pictures taken in camp due to the fact that it seemed like I was busy the entire time we were there. I do not typically cook breakfast, lunch and dinner at home---but for some reason I found myself cooking three meals a day at camp. It left me with a renewed feeling of gratitude that I was not born a pioneer woman. I had entertained fantasies of a leisurely trip with lots of time for this:

There just didn't turn out to be much time for handwork or reading, and here's the supplies for the filet bookmark I was planning to make, still in their wrappings back home. I won't complain too much though, the views were spectacular, the rafting was fun and without unfortunate incident, and we returned tired and sore, and almost on time for the soccer practice we were supposed to be running yesterday afternoon.

In preparation for the trip I had washed and vacuumed the family mini van. Next time I will skip this step, as the dirt roads in the national forest rendered it futile. Here's a parting shot of James-rendered dust graffiti:

And if you look inside you can make out some of the camping supplies that I now need to unload and put away. Fun.

It's HOT. . .(whine)

This is a picture of my thermostat. Yes, I know it's fuzzy, believe it or not it was the least fuzzy of all the pictures I took of it, and I think it's appropriate. It is pegged at over 90 degrees, because it only goes up to 90 degrees. That's 90 degrees in the house. It's also 90 degrees in the house at 8:00 at night. This is Southwest Washington where the average high temperature in July is only supposed to be about 80 degrees in the middle of the day. And need I mention the humidity?

Do not tell me that global warming is a myth. A lot of people here have never owned an air conditioner. Sprinkler systems have just become a boom industry in the last couple of years. When I moved here from Phoenix I did so with a couple of basic expectations 1) that it would never, ever be 90 degrees in the house, and 2) that I would not have to water the grass. Actually, due to a minor water shortage because of a broken filter at the treatment plant, I can NOT water the grass and look civically minded and not just lazy this summer.

We have seen Monster House in a cool dark theater. We have held our first soccer practice for the fall season (with a cooler full of ice water, a SuperSoaker to spray down hot players, and an ice-pop run for the biggest Otter Pops we'd ever seen--okay, they were actually the Flav-R-Ice brand, but they were enormous!) We have used our big blue pool. We watched Timeline on video while eating the last of the Popsicles (you wouldn't have wanted to be there--all four of us had listened to the unabridged Michael Crichton book on tape, and we went to town making comparisons between the book and the screenplay.) We have accepted an invitation to a friend's house who has air conditioning. We made blended ice drinks while watching the Miss Universe pageant (I can't recall watching a beauty pageant in the last 13 years, but it was just the thing for lazy viewing. Miss Sweden, Miss Mexico and Miss Trinidad/Tobago so should have made it into the final five!) Sleeping has been a challenge. After several restless, sweaty nights we're all getting a little grumpy.

Just checking in. . .

I haven't been crafting, I haven't been cooking. I did make brownies the night before last, but they were basically eaten all at once while they were still warm (it was only a small batch.) Last night the phone rang at 2:48 AM. Shocked out of a deep sleep I had to go pick up my daughter from a sleepover at a friend's house 15 miles away. She had a migraine headache and wanted to come home, poor thing. She was supposed to be going to Vacation Bible School/Camp with a couple of friends early this morning. We're going to be experiencing "Heat Wave" weather starting today and running through the weekend (so maybe it wasn't going to be the best time for camping, anyway.) If we are going to be experiencing extreme weather, I much prefer "Arctic Blast" to "Heat Wave," though I am amused by how the weather gets reported.

What We Did This Friday. . .

James was wanting to go to hiking this week. So on Friday we got in the car and drove up to Rainbow Falls State Park, which is 16 miles west of I-5 between Chehalis and Centralia. We've been there before. After we pulled off the freeway we were passed by a Ferrari. I didn't think much of it until we got to the park and went to use the restroom. As we came around a curve in the road we saw this:

TWENTY-TWO FERRARIS, out in the middle of rural Washington, at 2:00 on a Friday afternoon. It's not what we were expecting, and seemed a little surreal. They started up and left just as we arrived. I wish I had a picture of the look on James' face when they started their engines--it was sort of a look of Christmas morning wonderment, and he said "They PURR."

We started with a little hiking. It was sun-dappled shade on the trail, with occasional strong wiffs of evergreen.

We heard birds calling, but the only wildlife we spotted on the trail were a few of these:

That would be one of the famous Washington State slugs.

I think James looks good in the forest among the ferns:

Audrey had stayed up ALL NIGHT the night before, so she wasn't at her best, but she doesn't look too bad either:

After the hike we spent some time down by the falls themselves:

It was a lovely afternoon, but we almost didn't make it back to town for this:

John's band ("Keep Your Day Job") had their first truly public "gig" at Common Ground ("The Coffeehouse Formerly Known as Luigi's",) and it went very, very well. The place was packed, the staff was having to go up to the attic to bring down more chairs to seat everyone, there was a line to order and a wait for drinks and food. The band played for almost 3 hours, and for the record:

There was dancing. I was impressed. It seemed like there were still a lot of people when the band stopped playing at 10:00, so I took a quick head count and there were still over 50 people left in the crowd. The greatest proof of their success? The owner of the coffeehouse has asked them to play again. . .soon. . . on a SATURDAY night. (I wish I had more pictures of the band, but my battery died out on me. . .pooh.)

Cat Toy Swap Received

I've been remiss in posting my cat toys I received from Marty (she even sent them Priority Mail to make sure I got them in a hurry!) To tell you the truth, the kids were excited when they arrived a week ago, and ran off to find the cats to play with them, and it has taken me a while to round the toys back up for the official photo shoot.

I like the brown and aqua blue color combination she chose, and there was a really nice assortment of a pom-pom toy to dangle, a crocheted mouse to bat, and little knit finger sleeve with a fringe to tease with. They are a big hit with the cats, particularly with Bob, who is more of a toy aficionado. In fact, while I was trying to take pictures, THIS happened:

And he didn't stop there:

I had to spoil his fun and tell him those are inside toys. I'm such a mean mom.

Magic Yarn Ball Progress

There's been a little of this:

(It's called frogging because you "rip-it, rip-it.") Fortunately that was just one motif. There has been progress made:

As I've been using the yarn the prizes fall out. It's great fun. (It's really too bad that Australian customs UNRAVELLED the entire ball I sent to Amanda.) I love the little needle holder, it's already been very handy as I've been sewing my squares together (it's more difficult to lose the whole needle case than a loose yarn needle, I haven't had to hunt for one during this project--Yippee!) And just look at the buttons! I didn't know what I what I was missing by not having a button stash. Rebecca shared some really choice ones. There's a My Little Pony and a couple of cute little rainbow bubble magnets. Hmmm. The piece of fabric didn't make it into the picture. I'll have to do something with it and show it later. This isn't the best angle for showing off the crocheting (I was trying to flatter the pony,) but it does show some of the beautiful colored slubs of silk in the wool. Did I mention it was HAND SPUN?

Cat Toys Sent

This is what I made for the Cat Toy Swap on Swap-bot. My recipients should be receiving their packages by now, and I've been wanting to share them. Judging by the way Bob and Smokey kept trying to steal them when I was working on them, I am considering them Cat-Approved.

The one on the top left is a copy of a little water bomb that my son got at the dollar store, which Bob thinks is the best toy EVER. He carries it around by the little tag, he likes to bat it around, he likes the people to throw it so he can chase it--for something that wasn't intended to be a cat toy, it works really well. The big blue provencial patterned thing is a "cat body pillow" like one I bought at a bazaar last Christmas, it gets hugged and kicked with the back feet. Then there's a mouse and a crocheted strawberry, with catnip and bells, I made them us as I went along and they are all a little different. I made extras of everything for my cats except the strawberry--I got tired of sewing on seed beads.

I really wanted to include something I had found at the pet store, but it would have violated the postal services "no liquids" rule, and I am a chronic rule follower. It was catnip scented bubble stuff--you blow bubbles and the cat gets wacky on cat nip while they chase them. That sounded like fun.

Gratuitous Cat Picture. . .

Okay, I've been busy doing other stuff, as have many other bloggers, judging by the fact that a lot of them don't have new posts. This is interfering with the blog reading I do during my early morning coffee break, my lunch break, my tea break, my dinner break and my before-bed break (hmm, maybe I'm not as busy as I think I am.) If I don't have blogs to read I tend to get myself into trouble by using my computer time to eBay (and yes, eBay is a verb as well as a noun.) So blogging is preferrable.

This is Smokey. We were cat-less when we moved to Washington, and I adopted him on a whim when I stopped by Paws to Adopt for some cat-therapy after an irritating recruitment luncheon with the attorney-spouse of an interviewing physician. I got a lot of grief for doing it at the time (pets being something spouses are supposed to confer about before they show up, apparently,) but he has turned out to be an awesome cat (despite the $1,500 in vet bills he's incurred, including the midnight trip to the emergency vet in Vancouver and the fact that he bit me, hard, during a bath and I had to take antibiotics, and that he has a reliable internal clock that wakes us up at 5:30 every morning, an hour before the alarm) and he's recognized as a good addition to the family despite the way I high-handedly brought him home. He has the loudest purr we've ever heard, able to be heard across the room. He doesn't sit in laps, he likes to hang off the arm of the chair or couch that the people are sitting on. He chews yarn, but only that single strand that hangs from the item being worked on. He also sits in bed and washes my husband's forehead until it hurts. He was 5 when we got him. A year later I thought he would like a kitten to play with. I was wrong. Bob is the plague of his life, and he lets him bully him mercilessly, which may be why he's in the flowerpot by the shed, looking for a Bob-less place to nap. He was essentially sleeping on his head, though he opened an eye while I took the picture. He didn't bother getting up.

My Husband is Suspicious. . .

No picture yet of what I am making with my Magic Yarn Ball yarn because it just doesn't look like much (it will, eventually.) Work is progressing slowly because we had what amounted to a heatwave for us recently. I realize much of the country doesn't consider 80-90 degrees much of a heatwave-- heck, in Phoenix a few days of 80-90 degrees and people are so excited they walk around congratulating eachother on the nice cool weather--but we aren't used to that here. This may be because we have no airconditioning. At any rate, it makes working with wool a little sticky until things cool down at night.

As I mentioned, Rebecca sent me this wonderful ball of hand spun with the beautiful little slubs of silk and rayon in it. I've waved it at my husband several times and said something brilliant like "See! It's HAND SPUN! Rebecca MADE it! For ME!" He has dutifully examined and admired the ball. But he's also read a few knitting blogs and he knows about the seduction of spinning. Last night he asked the question, "Does this mean you are going to start spinning your own yarn, too?" Honestly, no, I don't want to start spinning. Spinning may start innocently enough with a charming hand-turned drop spindle in exotic wood and a bag of prewashed and carded roving--but I know where it can lead. Pretty soon it becomes buying whole fleeces from famous sheep. It involves washing (and I hate washing) and carding. (My husband doesn't want to know how much guitar stuff he could buy for what a drum carder costs.) There's the inevitable spinning wheel (see previous sentence and substitute spinning wheel for drum carder.) There would be fleeces to be stored. There would be washed fleece drying around the house. There would be the spinning wheel taking up precious floor space in the living room. The horror, the horror.

I told my husband "No, I don't feel a need to spin my own yarn." But I don't think he believes me.

Guess where I went today?

What do you do when you inherit an extra kid for a while?

You drag him and the rest of the kids to the beach and make them pose for endless pictures while squinting into the sun!

One of the really terrific things about where we live is that the nearest beach is an hour away. This is Fort Stevens, Oregon--just west of Astoria. It is historically significant, being part of the Lewis and Clark trail, and it has this great old shipwreck on the beach. It's the wreck of the Peter Iredale which ran aground in 1906.

It's also where the only attack on the mainland US was made during WWII. A Japanese sub came up and lobbed some shells right over the wreck.

James' friend Clark moved out of the neighborhood over a year ago. He lives up north of Wenatchee in the part of Washington where they grow the apples the state is famous for. It's about 5 hours away, so we don't get to see him very often, and it's nice to have him for a couple of days--but the hours of video games were making me nuts. So we went to the beach, and it was great.

We made the biggest and best sandcastle we've ever made. We also saw a flock of almost NINETY brown pelicans. And on the way home we saw the tiniest fawns I've ever seen grazing by the side of the road with their mama (though I couldn't figure out how to get a picture without obstructing traffic.)

It was a perfect sort of day.

My Magic Yarn Ball is here!

Look! It's my Magic Yarn Ball from Rebecca at http://ewedevil.com ! That's HAND SPUN yarn she made herself!! I've never had handspun before! And I let Rebecca know I was partial to bunnies, and look at this sweet little girl bunny just waiting to be freed! (A few too many exclamation points, maybe?) There are lots of intriguing things showing here and there, but I want to do it the right way and find them as I use the yarn. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to make with it and get started. I can't wait!

Why I bought an Ott Light. . .

Beading content, because even though I'm very pleased with my latest project, it's part of a swap and I don't want to give everything away. This is a Rhodonite necklace I made a while ago that needs to be restrung. . .again. I took it apart twice while I was making it to get the repeats and the length the way I wanted them, and stayed up late getting it right. Then I got up in the morning to admire it and one of the dang crystals that looked just as black as the other crystals the night before was actually blue, and not navy-blue-almost-black, but screaming cobalt blue. Now I have the small folding Ott Light, so I won't make that mistake again. Yet I still haven't been motivated to take this apart. . . again.