Saturday Surprise

With the doors closed, it looks like an innocuous piano music box (just under 12" tall) that plays "When You Wish Upon a Star."

Open the doors and look inside and you'll find a miniature music classroom- complete with things loosely scattered about, just as they often are in my life.

What a friend I have in The Claw!

T.V Season ending got you down?

Never fear... blog season at beckyknitstoo is just starting up. And while I may not be as exciting as t.v., I don't have commercials and I don't cost $130 a month. You also don't have to go through a 2 hour telephone menu to cancel. I love summer vacation and it's so close I can taste it.

Todays episode- the Dog Walk (which will likely be a returning episode)

Usually on our walks you see this if you look down:

And this if you look up:

We walk at the Greene County Fairgrounds. On a normal day we'll see some horses, cats and an occasional groundhog. When the flea market is in full swing (Tuesday and Saturday mornings) there will be a plethora of knick-knacky junk and Bonnie the dog that occasionally antagonizes Liza (though that girl-o-mine has learned Bonnie's on a leash and her owner lost a few customers last week when he paid more attention to trying to rile Liza than selling his baskets)

This weekend there appears to be a dressage competition at the fairgrounds. The good news is that the camera was in the car. The bad news is that my Kinnearing skills are limited and blurry at best.

Standard dressage fare is easily recognizable. Once you see it you say "oh.. that's what that's called."

More than one rider had a 1940's gangster look to their outfits

this is the one picture that really disappointed me- that horse was gorgeous

and then there is the guy going for the "Columbo" look. At first I thought maybe he was a judge but the contestant number on his back suggests otherwise. Given the weather we've been having he was most appropriately dressed.

We have four more days with kids and then four more days with just teachers and then summer 2011 begins.... stay tuned.

mirror image

Apparently my tooth liked the look of my shovel so much that it decided to free itself from the bondages of the dental work once done on it. Either that or maybe I should quit chewing on rocks. no pain- just a snaggle tooth waiting for repair.

a garden and then some post

We've got some badassmofo rocks in our garden- behold the evidence.




Mr. Sophanne went to the nursery-- peppers, tomatoes (there were several kinds but I didn't pay attention) and cucumbers There is some bibb lettuce that seems to have survived the hail.



I'm not sure about the corn- I'll give it another week to either die or grow.

Most exciting find of the day was this little potater plant



Lesson of the day- when the whirlygigs fall into your garden from the maple(?) tree, be sure to remove them when you can or else you will have maple trees growing in the garden.

Unrelated to gardening lesson of the day- Salty Chocolate day is a WIN. Things go much faster in the afternoon when you have a nice chocolate rush! I considered myself "armed and dangerous."

The most poignant part of the day- holy crap- that woman from Missouri whose husband saved her life and died doing so in the tornado. Made the little typical spat Mr. Sophanne and I were having seem so absolutely meaningless. I'm thinking about her a lot tonight.

I'm no Willie W0nka...

But for the sake of "salty chocolate" day at school, I'll give it my best shot.

This recipe can be found here-from the Whimsical Princess. I stumbled across it before Easter- she makes hers into peanut butter eggs. There's also some business about putting the peanut butter balls on a skewer to get the proper coating- no holes- make a lovely candy thing. I preferred to roll them around in chocolate and pick them up with a spoon and a fork salad serving style.

I may have erred in my chocolate- I like both dark and semi-sweet chocolate. When they're together and I can taste them both I am happy. I combined a bag of semi-sweet morsels and a bag of dark chocolate morsels when I melted it all together. Either others will feel the way I do or they will hate them because it has the kind they don't like in it.

Tomorrow is the 1st Annual Salty Chocolate Day (as declared by me) for the staff at school.

I wanted to call it PMS day but there are 2 men in the building and that would be inappropriate.

Apparently all you really have to do to "declare a day" is put a note in everyone's mailbox telling them that if they want to eat chocolate on that day they should bring some to share. I'm hoping to start a long-standing, possibly daily, tradition.

Also- I didn't want my ass to grow on homemade reese cups alone. My butt cheeks prefer a variety.

No Joy in Mudville

GARDEN

The garden is in a sad state of affairs. All that was once planted was shredded by the hail. We are in mourning. We shall return but I'm not going to put any time into it (other than removing rocks) until there are two non-raining days in a row and school is out. In the mean time- I'll keep hoeing.

KNITTING

The Effortless sweater is finished and needs a photoshoot. It's enormous but I love it and it has already been warn more than some other sweaters I knit years ago. It's always at hand and my go to cover up. I stayed with all one color.

With the maroon Elsbeth Lavold I am making a second "Queen Anne's Lace" by MMario. It's much easier the second time around and with bigger yarn/needles. It has the potential to be of GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS.

SCHOOL

My principal (who I really do like a lot) scheduled a big picnic on June 2 at a nearby park. He (with the help of the cooks) has planned the food and will be in charge of making sure everyone gets fed.

The physed teacher (chicken Bob anyone?) has offered up some activities (but no real organization because sadly, I don't think he can) as have others-

This includes a disgusting "fill a baby pool with water and marbles and let kids pick them up with their toes." I'm pretty sure that event is not going to clear the safety committee (of which I am chair.)

The art teacher, librarian and I were proactive in our participation. Art teacher and librarian will be painting faces while I entertain and sing camp songs as kids wait.(*see song list below-add any I may have forgotten) We've insisted on a shady pavillion as a work space.

All seems well and good on the surface except...

There is no schedule for the day. No rotation. No adults to get the stations going. Just go to the park and see what happens and he'll grill hot dogs. The principal was once a junior high principal and just yet can't see how this may be a problem.

"Hey 360+ kids- let's all have recess together!"





*A ram sam sam
Sarasponda
Crawdad song
Dr. Eisenbart
Don gato
Take you ridin in my car car
You are my sunshine
I’ve been working on the railroad
On top of Spaghetti
He’s got the whole world (g)
We come from the Mt.
She’ll be coming round the Mt.
I Love the Mt. (G Em Am D) w/capo
Oh SusannahBingo
The Bear went over the Mt.
There’s a hole in the bucket
My BonnieIf you’re happy and you know it
The More we get together
I am slowly going crazy

Really?

At first I thought the sight of these sad little plants in the

rocky clay was as pathetic as things could get.

That was until I came home from work today and

wondered why Mr. Sophanne had tossed salt in the yard.

Then I realized things could get much much more pathetic.

The "salt" was actually ice pellets from a giant hail storm

Much much more pathetic.

The Claw's

creations are too funny not to share. Mr. Sophanne takes a good picture wherever he is.

Garden update

Things are moving along nicely- May 15th is our "freeze date" so we are hoping to get things planted next weekend. In the meantime, a little paint brightens things up. I'm planning on putting a "no bunnies allowed" on the front of the gate.

The puppy practices searching for the bunnies. Always on the look-out.

And here is a bunny's eye view of things to come.

I wonder if they feel the same way people in our 'burg do when we find

out there's a new box store coming to town.

...and they'll have lettuce, and tomatoes, and green beans...

ALL IN ONE PLACE!

8 words

When I first posted this picture it was worth 1000 words. Then "The Claw" added text and it seems 8 words will do the trick.

Just as I opened the picture (before getting up this morning) Liza Jane was romping in the hallway with shoe in mouth. She will NEVER not be able to find my shoes.

minimalist birthday

Mr. Sophanne's birthday was last Wednesday. Two years ago I went all out with a monkey theme. Last year it was all Mario. This year I had no inspiration and didn't take a day off of work to prepare. The end result was 10 balloons and this:



He walked in as I was feebly attempting to achieve the festive look and said "don't bother- then I won't have to worry about it so much on your birthday." I'm o.k. with that.

Garden gate and fence pictures will be available whenever the rain stops. In the meantime, a patch of sun appeared and Mr. Sophanne and the dog went outside to clean up the sliding board that was once where the garden is now. He wanted me to label this post "Spring Slide Show."