It doesn’t really look like much, huh? Just a lacy blob. But as you can see, it’s a blob that’s getting bigger, so we’re clearly making progress.

A little more detail. Just because.

I’m feeling like a bad mother tonight because I found a tick on Chappy. A very large, round, well-fed tick that’s clearly been there for a while, and I hadn’t seen it. My guess is that he picked it up last week at the farm because, well, it was a farm and he was outside for most of the day–and then rained in for most of the past week. But–it took me a week to find it?

But, no time to be squeamish. I grabbed my “Ticked Off” tick-removal spoon and pulled that thing off–and with quite a loud pop, too. I’m 98% sure that the entire thing came off. I couldn’t actually see its head before I dumped it in the toilet, but the legs were moving, and I didn’t find anything on Chappy except for a little scab. Like I said–the tick had obviously been there a while. I do love those Ticked Offs, though–I can’t imagine trying to get those critters off with tweezers, and they’ve never failed me.

Still, obviously, I’m a terrible mother.

Chappy, on the other hand, is a very good boy. He sat nicely in the kitchen while I pulled the tick off and while I tried to look at his neck where it had been (not easy, what with all that fur). And yes, he got a treat for being so well behaved. But, obviously, next time we go to the farm, he’s going to get a more thorough spritz of his anti-flea and tick spray.

For the record, it was so cold and damp last night that I was cold when I climbed into my nice, cozy bed … so I pulled out that lovely afghan I just finished and put it on top of my duvet. I honestly didn’t expect to find a use for it before October or so, so this was particularly exciting. I can vouch for its fitting very nicely on my twin-sized bed, and apologize for its having ended up on the floor at some point in the middle of the night. That used to happen to my dolls and stuffed animals when I was little, too. In fact, my very favorite doll, who has a crack in her little plastic face, used to end up with her head on one side of the bed and her body on the other … poor Buttons. She must have been so glad when I headed off to school in the morning. Can you imagine the headaches she must have had?

Today’s post title? It occurred to me this morning that I am exactly a quarter of the way through my forties. I am 42.5 years old today.

Yes, it’s my  half-birthday, and to celebrate, I spent the day at work, but got to take Chappy out for his first walk since Saturday. And when I came home from work, I cooked supper and baked a pan of brownies, using a recipe I got from Stitchy McYarnpants in 2006 and hadn’t gotten around to trying yet.

No photos of the brownies (yet), but I can vouch for them being decadently chocolatey, even if they are rather more cake-like than brownie-like.

Today’s CHUCK links:

• A review of season 2 from IGN.

• But also, another creative move from the minds of the people trying to save Chuck. They’ve already had people buying thousands of Subway footlong sandwiches because Subway is such an enthusiastic sponsor, but now, they’re encouraging people to “Have a Heart” and donate to Subway’s favorite charity–the American Heart Assocation–in the name of Chuck Bartowski. I think this is a great idea, myself. Because, one, it’s creative and better than swamping the NBC studios with boxes of candy, but two, even if it has no real impact, it’s money going to a good cause. Because who doesn’t want to stop heart disease?

Tags: Chappy, Knitting/Spinning by --Deb
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Okay, so this really never happens. I’ve been sitting here for half an hour, and still have nothing really to say. How sad is that?

I’ve been knitting away on my shawl, and am getting through about 4 rows a night at this point … you know, the usual problem. The rows get longer all the time, so while being diligent, it’s moving slowly.

Of course, it’s also raining. It’s been raining since Sunday, and Chappy  hasn’t gotten out of the house in days. He hasn’t gotten to show off his snazzy new collar, or anything.

I can tell you that the weather 26 years ago was absolutely perfect May weather. That was the day our first dog, Muppy, died at five and a half. (Sniffle.)

Otherwise? Did you know Claudia’s taking donations for her annual MS Fundraising Bike Ride? The one that always has really fabulous prizes? Run right over there and make a donation!

Of course, NBC isn’t helping matters. They announced a partial schedule for the Fall … but Chuck isn’t on it. Which doesn’t mean that it has NOT been renewed. It just means they haven’t announced it. Speculation is that Warner Brothers–who produces the show–has it linked in negotiations with one of the pilots that NBC didn’t actually like … but that NBC does, in fact, want to renew Chuck. Assuming they can find room on their schedule, considering that they’ve only got 10 hours of programming to play with.

I tell you, this is driving me nuts. And, if you haven’t watched Chuck? You can see the Pilot (and some of the other Season 1 episodes) here at the wb.com. (Although, oddly, the episodes are sped up just a tiny bit, so the voices sound just a little faster and a little higher than they should–a little distracting, but hey!) You can watch the 10 most recent episodes of Season 2 at hulu.com.

And, the finale? The episode that they said really COULD be watched by someone who hadn’t watched the show before? And that really worked as a pilot for Season 3? So true. You could absolutely watch it without having prior knowledge. You should, in fact, because it was amazing.

Honestly. I am not the only person this uncertainty is driving nuts.

Tags: General by --Deb
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It’s like a Saturday miracle. Remember I was complaining in March about how impossible it was to find decent jeans? Well today, I not only found some, I found four pairs! Two classic, 5-pocket style, one “trouser” style, and one other trouser style, but with buttons along the pockets, nautical style.

And, to top it off, they were on sale. $39.50 each. Which, yes, means I just spent (gulp) $160 on jeans, but that’s really not a bad price for decent jeans, and now I should be set for a while, especially when you consider the last time I bought jeans (I think) was in 2005. So I’m trying not to think about it.

We won’t even discuss my disbelief that three of the four pairs are size 4. Because, seriously, there’s no way I’m a four–I’ve got way too much waistline for that, though my hips are quite slim, which is surprising considering how much time I spend sitting in front of a computer these days! It’s just one of those mysteries of jean-fittings.

And, no, I am NOT at MDSW today (despite a friend‘s generous invitation to come share her hotel room). But see? I’ve got some fibery goodness for you to look at anyway.

Here’s my Fall Share from MVFF, which went AWOL for a while. It was accidentally sent to the wrong person, and they just got it back at the farm on Tuesday–and when Susan mentioned that on Ravelry, I immediately told her to hang on to it for me, and I’d pick it up at Shearing Day … no need to ship it. Because, of course, unbeknownst to her, I was showing up on her doorstep the next day.

I forget the weights, but that’s a bag of cormo/kid mohair blend, a braid of mostly-cormo with some other wool blended in (now that Erin’s learned how to do braids), and a couple ounces of chocolately-brown.

It’s all beautiful and so, so soft. My only complaint is that since I’ve only got about 9 ounces of the cormo/mohair blend, that’s not going to be enough spun yarn to make a sweater out of. I do knit other things (as you know), but my favorite is still to knit sweaters, and I confess to being a little disappointed that there’s not enough here of one type of wool to make enough yarn for one. But that’s just me!

I meant to ask Susan on Wednesday if she had any 100% cormo roving I could buy from her. Because when I got my Spring share from last year, I gave half of it to Jessica to dye in MVFF colors, and started spinning the other half in the natural color, planning to knit it into a cabled, Aran kind of sweater … except, what was I thinking? There’s no way a pound of Cormo is going to make me enough yardage for a cabled sweater! And while I would be willing to use other fibers, I want that pure, creamy white to match for the entire sweater … I think I might have shot my plan in the foot by giving half the fiber to Jessica for dyeing. Maybe I should have just given her a quarter? Any way, this Fall Share is gorgeous, gorgeous, but the color doesn’t match the Spring Share, sooo….

Oh, and I think NBC is trying to give me a nervous breakdown. Although articles like this at least help.

Okay, I’m going to go take my shower, make some tea, and sit with my knitting for a while. I actually did some spinning last night–I was determined to do something fibery while all my peeps were heading to MDSW.

And tonight’s movie choice? Babe. Because Chappy wants to know why all the goats were chanting, “Woooooolf. Wooooooolf,” at him on Wednesday.

Tags: General by --Deb
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I hope you don’t think that those tulips from last week were anything that grew in our yard. We are NOT gardeners, here!

No, they were part of the self-serve plant sale at the farm up the road, with their leftover Easter plants

Way too pretty to let them die without at least photographing them first, wouldn’t you agree?

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Tags: Eye-Candy Friday by --Deb
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Here’s what I read in April, 2009:

1. The Match by Mark Frost (250 p.) Entertaining true story about a 1956 golf match between two masters and two amateurs. Good story.

2. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos (388 p.) Cornelia and her new husband move to the suburbs … I enjoyed this just as much as I did her first book, Love Walks In.

3. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (211 p.) A long-time childhood favorite which I like to revisit from time to time–in this case, it was the book Mom and I read together on a trip.

4. The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash (286 p.) What happens when your genius photographer father dies and leaves his work to your genius artist daughter? You acknowledge that maybe your talent is just as inspired as theirs, of course, but not without a certain amount of heartache.

5. Skating Shoes (aka White Boots) by Noel Streatfeild (282 p.) I always loved this YA book about poor, sick Harriet whose doctor send her to a skating rink to regain her strength, where she becomes friends with a skating prodigy.

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. Book #7 and the finale of the series–do I really need to say more?

7. Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod (237 p.)
8. Withdrawing Room by Charlotte MacLeod (188 p.)
9. Palace Guard by Charlotte MacLeod (176 p.)–the first 3 Sarah Kelling mysteries, very “cozy” in flavor, light and frothy, except, you know, for people dying left and right…

10. Legacy of the Dead by Charles Todd (346 p.)
11. Watcher of Time by Charles Todd (421 p.)–More serious in tone, these are also murder mysteries, taking place right after WWI. I don’t think I enjoyed the last one as much as the earlier books in this series, but they’re still darn good.

12. Cape Wind by William Whitcomb (305 p.) True story about the political machinations behind and against the proposed wind farm in the Nantucket Sound. Interesting!

13. The King and the Cowboy by David Frankin (224 p.) Disappointing, though entertaining enough. This was touted as being about the ‘secret’ friendship between King Edward of England and Theodore Roosevelt in 1900, but it spent at least 3/4 of the book talking about how the men (not to mention Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany) came to power, and barely touched on the one scheme they worked on together … so it felt misrepresented, though as I say, it was interesting enough. Strongly skewed to the story of the British King, too, and only lightly touching on TR.

14. Japanese Inspired Knits by Marianne Isager (142 p.) Knitting patterns for, well, Japanese inspired sweaters.

15. Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett (534 p.) House of Niccolo book #3, Nicholas goes to Crete… Do I really need to keep telling you how much I love Dunnett’s books?

16. Exile’s Song by Marion Zimmer Bradley (493 p.) Fantasy. Book #1 of the story of Margaret Alton, trained as a musicologist, but returning to Darkover only to discover that she’s an heiress who can read minds–quite a shock to her logical brain!

17. Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson (264 p.) One of those quiet, smooth, atmospheric kinds of history books–one that covers in extreme detail the summer of 1911, which was filled with sunny skies and social occasions, and little awareness of how the world was about to change. Nicely put together, but perhaps a little too serene.

Tags: Monthly Reading List, Reading by --Deb
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