Anyway.... I just love this cake/cookie that David and Craig brought me from a excursion to a local Mexican Grocer. (He's cute!) They have discovered a treasure! The local Mexican grocer's have better prices on all of their veggies and most of their meats. David, I'm sure will be making weekly runs to this grocer in the future. They do have wonderful stuff there. Craig came into town for a visit a few weeks ago. He and David had the whole weekend without me interfering in their plans due to the circumstances I'll explain below...We've had a wild few weeks.
In a nutshell, Ivan was hospitalized, operated on, released and is now back at work. To sum it all up as succinctly at possible, the boy had Strep B, Mono AND Tonsillitis all at one time. All of this took place in a 3 week period and he has just now returned back to work this last Monday, a healthier/happier individual, now without his tonsils! Thankfully there are no residual problems. This is Memorial Hospital North where he stayed for the duration of his experience.
Kristina has a new boyfriend. We really like this young man. He's respectful, courteous, pleasant and thoughtful of her. His name is Clay and he, like Kristina, is a Junior and on the swim team. So Kristina is now going to after school practices and is trying to become one of the swim team managers. We're getting ready to set up the usual boyfriend weekday schedule for Kristina with a little more time allowance, I think, as she is older now. So I know your asking, "What is this picture of food doing here, instead of a picture of Clay?" Well to be perfectly honest..... I don't have a picture of Clay to share at the moment so I thought I'd show you what we had to eat the first time this boy came for dinner! Shrimp Etouffee! His first visit fell on the day before "Fat Tuesday"! So we celebrated with my first time try at Etouffee. Thankfully it was good.
I'm knitting. I know, I know..... big surprise! You can stop chuckling now. But just for the sake of it, I have knit multiple hats that will be headed to Africa, for some orphanages, in a couple of weeks and I'm still chugging along on my shawls that have, for all practical purposes, taken over my life for the time being. I'm rather excited about these though. This is not a picture of one of the shawls. I know, I know we just went through this in the above entry. Just hang on one minute and let me explain. This is a picture of a lap throw that I'm working on but is hibernating for the moment. This next picture is of one of the shawls. Now you can see why I don't post a lot of pictures 
on the shawls. There's nothing to see until I get it done and blocked! This particular shawl I took to Panera's to meet some friends to do knitting and when I pulled it out to show it off, one of my friends (LeAnne) said that it looked like the "lunch lady's hair net"! I almost lost my coffee. We all cracked up and now I always refer to this one as the "Lunch lady's hair net". When its done, its supposed to be 72" (6') in diameter. We'll see!....
This last picture is of the roving that I have spun myself. Left to right: The first 3 are ones that I did on a spinning wheel. The last 3 I did by hand with my drop spindles. I'm still working on the brown and blue colored yarn. The brown hank you see is 2 oz's. I have 6 oz's more to spin. The blue is also 2 oz's and I have 4 oz's more to go until I'm done. Another friend, Vicky, let me get into her stash of roving and bring some home to drop spin that is a beautiful creamy white with gentle touches of tan/brown running through it. So for the moment I have 3 spindles going and they'll be busy for quite some time as this is a time consuming hobby. You can click on the picture to see how I've progressed in my ability with the spinning wheel and then drop spindle spinning. I lined these hanks up from the very first spinning I did on the wheel to the use of the drop spindle. I think I do a better job on the drop spindle myself.
on the shawls. There's nothing to see until I get it done and blocked! This particular shawl I took to Panera's to meet some friends to do knitting and when I pulled it out to show it off, one of my friends (LeAnne) said that it looked like the "lunch lady's hair net"! I almost lost my coffee. We all cracked up and now I always refer to this one as the "Lunch lady's hair net". When its done, its supposed to be 72" (6') in diameter. We'll see!....
This last picture is of the roving that I have spun myself. Left to right: The first 3 are ones that I did on a spinning wheel. The last 3 I did by hand with my drop spindles. I'm still working on the brown and blue colored yarn. The brown hank you see is 2 oz's. I have 6 oz's more to spin. The blue is also 2 oz's and I have 4 oz's more to go until I'm done. Another friend, Vicky, let me get into her stash of roving and bring some home to drop spin that is a beautiful creamy white with gentle touches of tan/brown running through it. So for the moment I have 3 spindles going and they'll be busy for quite some time as this is a time consuming hobby. You can click on the picture to see how I've progressed in my ability with the spinning wheel and then drop spindle spinning. I lined these hanks up from the very first spinning I did on the wheel to the use of the drop spindle. I think I do a better job on the drop spindle myself. 
Let's see I've also groomed the pups. Cisco was in such horrible shape after waiting the two weeks post neutering and then having to wait further due to the situation with Ivan that I just sucked it up and took him to the groomer. He really was in bad shape. The neuter clinic used something oily on him while he was there and it started some horrible matting that just multiplied from there up his little bod. He's now where I can manage the upkeep. Max and Jake suffered here at home, the humiliation of the baths, standing on the table, for all to see, for their clips and then to be shooed outside to run off any unwanted cut hair that was stuck. Afterward of course they were delighted with the final results. Its now time again for a little touch up.I've debated all through the typing of this post whether or not to mention this, but I might as well do it. David and I are both on diets now. I've almost gained back all the weight I'd lost a few years ago and David has done the same. We'll see how it goes... We need the encouragement, so start sending ideas and good thoughts our way!
Happy Leap Day!
