Baby Charlotte

Hey, look! It's the beginning of a shawl!

Like a disciplined olympic athlete, I cast on as soon as the olympic ceremonies started last night. And then I pulled out, and cast on again. And again. And again. But on the 6th try, I got it right. I think. Right enough to keep going, anyway. No, actually, I'm pretty sure it's right. 99% sure and 1% hoping.

So...what did I think of the opening ceremonies you ask? Well, I didn't really see them. I HEARD them. I was counting stitches and watching my graph intently, only looking up at the end of a row to breathe a big sigh of relief. I loved that the Olympic flag carriers were important women from each continent, and was absolutely delighted to see Susan Sarandan there.

I was thinking about the funny concept of the Knitting Olympics -- can you believe that about 4000 people are participating in this, just through the Yarn Harlot's blog? It ballooned almost overnight, with cities developing "teams" and yarn stores giving discounts to people buying yarn for their K.O. projects!

Hmmm, maybe a quilt olympics would be an amusing spin off (we've got 4 years to plan, after all...) But it's no big feat to finish a quilt in 16 days. Puh-leeze. That's no challenge at all.

Some other odds and ends from yesterday:

If you like alternative/folky, mellow but happy music, check out Jack Johnson's songs on the soundtrack from the new Curious George movie. It's wonderful! I'm listening to it right now, and it's quite nice. This is music you could play in the car for your kids OR by yourself. (I've been known to find myself alone in the car, singing along with Barney, not realizing that I didn't have to play the dang CD once Caroline was out of the car...but that was a while ago. Now we're into Disney Girlz Rock...but that's another story.)

Roger and I joined a new health club yesterday. When I saw new, I don't mean new to us; I mean new from the ground up. It just opened in Healdsburg this month. The big attraction is the pool, which we'll use a lot as Caroline loves to swim, and the community pool has such frustratingly irregular hours. And of course, there are all the things like weight machines and pilates and yoga classes and such. Gee, I should have lot a few pounds just by joining, right?

Then we went and test-drove two cars. Some of you will remember that MONTHS AND MONTHS ago, we were test driving cars to replace my aging SUV/family vehicle. We didn't find anything we truly loved, and we're hoping that in a year or two, there will be better hybrid options for cars that seat 6 people. (I have my quilty friends to consider for long field trips, after all.) And then Dave got a new car in July, and Melody's posts about how utterly happy he was with it made me think that Roger would be happier about a new car than I would. (I mean, I love my Bernina and my Juki...but a car? It's just a car.) So I proposed that we replace his similarly aging car, and then wait a year or two to replace mine.

Well, I have to assume that Roger is having as much fun with the shopping process as he would be having with the car itself, because he has been looking at cars, and reading about cars, and watching cars on the road, and researching cars, since July. (There is no way I could shop this long. I do research, and I comparison shop, but not making a decision would make me CRAZY. It HAS been making me crazy. Plus, I'd want the thing I was shopping for, sooner rather than later.)

Anyway. He had just settled on "the" car -- a Honda Accord -- when rainy season hit, and he took Gemma and Caroline to the dog park a few times. It quickly struck him that a 10 year old kid or two, a muddy dog, and a new sedan do not make for a happy new car owner.

So, he's been looking at small SUVs, hybrids, and wagons... cars that look and feel fun and sort of sporty, but where he could hold 3 kids in the back seat AND put Gemma in the "way back" for trips to the dog park. He's narrowed it down to the Toyota Rav4 and the Honda CRV, and we went out to drive them yesterday.

Me, I knew which I'd choose if it were my car to drive all the time. (The Rav4.) No question in my mind. I'm tall, and the CRV didn't have enough legroom for my comfort. But even though Roger is taller than I am, my height is in my legs and his isn't, I guess, so the leg thing didn't bother him at all. But Roger is mulling.

Me, I'll just go back to counting stitches in my knitting.