That Sinking Feeling...

...when you realize you're supposed to knit ACROSS the turned heel so you're on the proper side to pick up the gusset stitches.... 

Crap

Let me explain for the non-knitter readers: you pick up stitches along the side of the heel so that you make that "right turn" to work on the foot of the sock. But if you're an idiot, like I am apparently this morning, you have picked them up on the OPPOSITE side from where you're supposed to be. And you end up purling across the instep.

See, in knitting socks, you're knitting in the round. That means, normally (unless the pattern says otherwise), you ALWAYS just knit. No purls. 

So. I could turn the thing inside-out and proceed, but there's the dilemma of picking up the other side backwards, if you will. 

So I'm just going to frog it. I saw a set of stitch markers that had various phrases that I'm using. "Crap" is one of them. 

Turned heel

Otherwise, I did turn the heel, finding a source for the math. Go ahead - laugh. I should know this, and knitting involves math, but I'm just a dunce when it comes to that. 

So I did that last night before I toddled off to bed. So that's the excuse I'm using: I should have knitted across, but I was too tired. 

And it was even worse. Of course, yesterday being July 4, everyone in the neighborhood becomes a pyrotechnics expert. In spite of the fact that it's illegal in IL. And in spite of the fact that it's just plain neighborly to not be lighting off M-80s in the relative 'burbs. 

I didn't fall asleep till about midnite, and the noise didn't abate till then. Yes. I can call the cops. But no. It won't do any good. We've had that argument before, and really there are too many idiots buying the stuff. We would need better policing at the border between Indiana and IL to really make the point, but nobody wants to do that. And our state troopers are busy getting drunks off the roads. 

I'd rather they do that. If someone blows their hand off, I'm not very sympathetic. It's your own blasted (sorry) fault. 

Biking...

New duds

Got me some new biking duds!! The shorts have a nice gel insert. I have some older pairs, and the padding has flattened. So I have new gloves (I rather like the older ones, but these are lighter), and tops and the shorts. 

So we went off yesterday, before the real explosions started, so we could be home with the girls in time. 

Hitch

Hubby says he's going to order a hitch for my truck. Here's what we have on his: it's a multi-use thing where you can put a ball on it to haul a trailer. This also hauls the bikes nicely. You can lock it, too, so that you can leave your bikes if you need to. Normally, we don't lock it, but then we're not leaving our bikes for an extended period of time. 

You can tell we're on the edge of the country. The trail we chose was a mixed-use trail. There were 2 guys on horses. We rang our little bike bells (yes, the ones you had as a kid) and went carefully around them. Though I'd have preferred to get ON the horses!! So the trail isn't totally paved. It's got that finely crushed limestone that the horses prefer. 

There were walkers, folks with strollers, runners - everyone uses the trail. The bad part is with that surface; it's a little wonky now because of the recent rains. In some spots, it's washed out, and in spots, the gravel has pooled, which makes it interesting to navigate. You have to be consistently on the watch, and it's a little rough on the body, too. Couple that with the fact that I gained some poundage over the Convention, I hadn't been on the bike in 3 weeks or so, and we had a headwind... It was not a fun ride. 

Hitching rail

I mean it was; I'm proud that I did it. But it was a pretty wimpy ride all things considered. I only did about 6.8 miles. 

Here's another way you can tell it's a mixed-use trail. That thing I'm hanging onto is a hitching rail.

Yes, I think this will be my "before" shot. Spandex is nobody's friend, but truly it does make the ride a lot more comfortable. 

As far as the biking itself is going, I don't think I'll be doing any today, but maybe tomorrow we can get out if the weather cooperates. It's a very nice way for me to get exercise in addition to the yoga. 

Moving Out...

Kid #2 and I are going to his new area to look for apartments. He needs to get there by mid-July, and it's fast approaching. He's been dilly-dallying, and I think the little birdie needs a shove out of the nest.

We've decided to put bookshelves in his room, make it truly my yoga room, and store the massage table in there (it folds up). When we have guests, we have a queen-sized air mattress that isn't all that bad, frankly! 

Supervision necessary

My office (Kid #1's room) has become a dumping ground and it really needs to be cleared out better. 

As far as organizing goes, Hubby built me a new place for my shoes. Kid #2 can take the old rack to his place; he's kind of a shoe maven too...And right now, they're all piled at my back door. Size 12s take up a LOT of room!! 

So as he's doing that and I'm turning the heel of the Fluro sock, I hear him laugh. This is what I see down the hall. 

Raisa apparently thinks he needs supervision. She wandered over there and plopped herself in the middle of his job and just waited him out. 

What a silly dog!!

The Garden...

Lookee what I found on my dill!!! My friend Susan B says that this is a swallowtail butterfly-to-be! They love dill. And this is really why I planted what I planted this year. 

Dilly Caterpillar

I didn't get any good shots of the bees on the coneflowers. But suffice to say, their little legs were LOADED with pollen. 

Again, we'll have more dill than we can use, so let the butterflies have it. 

The French Lavender is coming along nicely, and the petunias are nice and bright. 

We have a problem with one of our hummingbird feeders. I think it's leaking. And we're sad that we're not seeing more hummers this year. 

I'll try to get pics of the coneflowers soon. 

There's still a few weeks to wait for cucumbers. We're lettucing like crazy. And perhaps at least 2 weeks till the first tomato.

A Quote...

Here's a quote that actually pinpoints what SCOTUS just did to us.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.  Abraham Lincoln

It's already started. Now the religious whackos are after their own version of Sharia law: let's discriminate against ANYONE who's NOT US. So they're already lining up to see if they can get a "religious exemption" so that they can NOT hire LGBT people. 

Because, you know, Jesus likes the hating. 

Random Picture...

Bubble, bubble

Just because I like the water action. Hubby got a new bubbler for the one bird bath. It took a while to get the solar panel into the sun (we want to keep it in the bed so that we don't have to worry when mowing) and when it did, it took off!

Again, taken with my phone. This 41 megapixel camera is crazy-good. 

I turned up the two smaller ones in the other bird bath, but I have one "bubbler" and one "trickler" - which is fine. Anything that keeps the water moving reduces the chances of mosquitoes laying eggs. 

We just have to figure out what to do with the birdbath in the back. Probably move it off the patio and closer to the driveway, so that it gets more sun. It's very shallow, though. So maybe its ultimate destiny is a base for a planter. I keep going back to that. Put some pea gravel in it, stick a pot of flowers in there and let it be. It's even too shallow to be an actual planter itself. 

This weekend, I have to find some time to make up the jelly. I found a recipe for Herb Jelly and Tarragon Jelly. It's all coming up at once!