Gator

Okay, fair warning, I'm going to lay a lot of pipe here....

Last week, M made a stop down by the White River. She was on the way home and was on a personal errand. Okay, she was looking for Pokemon.

Some fishermen who were there asked (since she was in uniform) if she was there "for the alligator." Then they proceded to show her footage on their phone of what appears to be an alligator--at first staying still, but then moving slowly away before ducking under the water. 

This was not the gator.

Of course, this is not news. DNR pulls a 3-5 foot alligator out of White River about every two years or so. That's not such a big gator, really, unless you factor in the fact that this is Indiana. 

The White River, by the way, joins the Blue River. Blue River, of course, is where we were canoeing a few weeks ago. In fact, we were canoeing in the part of the Blue that the White joins. We even talked about next time canoeing up the White a little way, just for fun.

Fun!

But I think we'd be okay. Alligators are usually pretty even tempered, right?

Another Yarn Class Project

Tonight was another yarn class. This was also a yarn embroidery project. I used one of the leftover 12X12 canvases I had from last month's project and also the same yarn. I wanted to display these two projects together, so I wanted to make sure they matched.

Eventually, I will have my craft room put together (T and I have been working on it all week) and I will display the two projects there.

My Laptop And I Are One

... old, broken down, and full of outdated and useless information. The newer models on the market are slimmer and prettier and definitely do a lot more with just their factory-installed software. Plus, we both overheat easily and often forget what we're doing. And sometimes we just give up and collapse, not knowing if we will be able to get back up again.

I have never been so similar to a machine in my life.

Yeah. I've been unable to use my computer for a few days, basically because of all those reasons. And I can't blame it, really. It's old. And I am asking so much of it every day. Obviously, I've reached the point where I am asking too much of it. We're now at the blue screen three times a week stage.

So I guess I will be trying to do something clever in order to stay online. Not sure what that will be, but...

More Mermaid Tail

Whoooo-hoooo!

This is coming along really nicely! I'm getting faster and faster (if you can call this stitch fast) at the Crocodile Stitch. Of course, I'm still at the very narrow end. We'll see how this goes once I get up the body of this project.

My goal is to have this completed by end of month. I think I'm right on target.

July Warm Up America Blocks

Whoopsie. I need to weave in the ends where the yellow and
red join.. I just tucked those strands under for the photo.

How is it that I have just now realized I can call these "blocks" and be accurate and not "squares," like I have been calling them (and hating that inaccurate name.)?

Anyway, here are two more blocks for Warm Up America. Both are garter stitch. One started out yellow and then I ran out of that yarn and added the red.

Then I realized I might run into the same problem with an all red block, so I decided to make it striped red with a small ball of black. I like them both, but I especially like the way the stripes look. I think I might make some more striped blocks (and, in the process, use up some small balls of leftover yarn).

By the way, I had about 12 inches of black left over from that block!

If Jon Bon Jovi Could Turn Back Time

Have you seen DirectTV's new commercials that star Jon Bon Jovi? No? Here's the quick version: Various people turn on the TV and notice that they've missed most of the program they wanted to see. They are sad, until Jon Bon Jovi magically appears in their living room and uses their remote to restart the program from the beginning. The whole time, he's singing about how you can "turn back time."

Now, as cool as a rock star genie appearing in your living room would be, like all genie stories this turns out to be a monumentally terrible thing. Sure, he restarts the program so they don't miss anything, but then he proceeds to (in a couple of different commercials) bring back the wife's ex-boyfriend, get rid of the couple's second child, and reanimate a man's dead grandfather. All the while, Bon Jovi is singing and smirking.

But what is making him smile? Is Bon Jovi evil? Come on. The author of "I'll Be There For You"? Not a chance.

No. I think this smile is hiding his deeper pain. He's thinking, "I've sold 130 million records. Why am I doing a commercial for the second worst television viewing option? What the hell did I do with all my money?"

See, despite the smirk, I don't think Bon Jovi's having a good time shilling DirectTV. Jon Bon Jovi can actually act. I've seen him do it. So he could definitely act as if he were enjoying his magical DirectTV powers.

But listen to his voice. There's no passion, no satisfaction in singing those words: turn back time. If anything, he's sympathizing with his victims in this--Yeah, buddy. I cockblocked you with the guy she dated before she married you. And I sympathize. I really do. But I used to sell out stadiums. How do you think that makes me feel?

His eyes. Oh, his eyes!

And his eyes... All the acting skill in the world couldn't hide the anguish in those eyes. "Yes, I disintegrated your baby." and "Yes, I materialized a Grampy Tim zombie in your living room." But also, "I'm hurting too."

Poor guy. Trapped in a bad commercial for a bad product, Bon Jovi finds himself leaping from living room to living room, putting things wrong that can't be put right, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

This Is For The Birds!

No, really. I bought it for the birds.

Technically, I bought it for my cats to watch the birds eating out of it. But I also thought it would be cool to paint it fantastically. I don't know what it will look like when I'm done, but trust me. It's going to be fantastic!

I'm going to base coat it in black because I think a black base coat is perfect for just about everything. Then we'll see where it goes from there.

Anniversary Trip #2

Today's adventure was on the water. As a child and teen, T had spent most of his weekends in the spring and summer fishing with his father. They would float down the rivers and creeks, stopping to fish in one spot or another. A fishing trip would go all day. I thought it would be nice to recreate his boyhood fishing trips. (Although we didn't fish. I don't believe in hunting animals for sport.)

So we rented a canoe and put into the water about 7 miles upstream of where we parked the car. (There was a shuttle to take us to the boat ramp.)

Notice I bought the extra large size of both?
I burn so easily, I need the SPF 50!
And I do NOT want to get bitten by anything!

This is the shuttle bus that took us to the boat ramp.
There were about 10 groups of us on this trip.

If I had known he was taking my photo, I might have
sucked in my gut a little. LOL.

We took a selfie just before boarding the bus.

One of the families brought their little dog on the canoe trip.
He has his own little lifejacket. So cute!

The boat ramp.

And we're on the water!

The water is a little cloudy today because
it rained pretty hard for about 2 hours
before we got on the river.

A fantastic iron and wood bridge we passed under. It's
technically in Camp Atterbury, so it's property of the
US Army. There is a pretty strict "Keep off" sign.
It made me want to climb on it.

I don't know why he keeps taking my photo
when I'm not looking. This is not my best side.

Can you see the turtles? We saw about 200+ turtles,
not even kidding. On every flat rock and log.

And ducks. Lots of ducks and geese.

And this is the end of the trip.

We had a lot of fun. I'd like to do this trip again, and maybe take a little more time exploring some of the little streams that branch off of this river.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the 32nd anniversary of the day T and I married. Yay! And they said it wouldn't last. (Just kidding. Everyone who knew us knew that it was going to last forever.)

This last year has been kind of stressful for us, with parents' health, major life events (2 weddings in 2 years!), work, etc. So we decided that there is nothing we need to give each other so much as time together. Our anniversary gift to each other this year, therefore, is 4 days in each other's company.

Today, we went to Brown County State Park. This is symbolic for us because, when we were poor college students, we couldn't afford to do a lot of expensive things on dates. So we often went to Brown County State Park and spent the day hiking. It was always a fun date--outide, active, very playful, and cheap. And we always took the rugged trails because, you know, what's the point in hiking if you're not hiking?

So, we decided to do a rugged trail this time, too. This is actually a pretty rigorous trail that goes down into an area about 150 feet, then over/under logs, through creeks and underbrush, etc. All the way down, I kept remarking about how glad I was we took the rugged trail because there was so much more to see and do.

You know this is going to be an adventure
if you're letting me work the map! Ha! Ha!

It starts out easy enough.

Nice steps leading down a ways.

Oh, well that should be invigorating.

There's a squirrel over there, somewhere.

Down, down we go. Still a pretty good
path here.

Uh-oh.

Lots of downed trees.

Also lots of ferns.

 

Most of the trees are really, really tall.
You don't see a lot of that kind of forest
these days.

You can see, it just keeps going down. This whole area
was formed when the glaciers pushed southward. So lots of
hills and crevaces in the landscape.

Every now and then, we'd see one of these,
pointing out a place on the map.

But seriously, who lets me work the map?

The trail ran through this creek.

Like, through it.

I don't know what kind of plant this is.
I just liked it.

I know this is catnip. How do I know? It smells like
raccoon piss. Raccoons love this stuff.

Stopped for a selfie at the bottom of the ravine.

There were a lot of downed trees.

Lots of crossing over the stream.

I kept thinking "This is where I'd hide if I were a snake."

Here's a funny thing about this: We went over/under this thing
to follow the trail. Then found out the trail looped back on
itself and we had to go over/under it again.

Somehow going up the steps was worse than
going up the trail. But... only one
way out of here.

Back in the car, red-faced and exhausted!
Not gonna lie. I had to stop a few times
on the way up to catch my breath.

Leaving the park.

Whoo-hoo! Finally A Start!

Ok, well I finally got started with a project for Christmas. This one is a mermaid tail lap blanket. It's all in crocodile stitch, which I've never done on something so large. But you know what I always say: Go big or go home, right?

I'm hoping this variegated yarn will add to the appeal of
the crocodile stitch.

This is the first round of scales. It went pretty quickly, despite the fact that each row of crocodile stitch is actually about 3 times the work of a regular stitch row. First you create a foundation row, then you crochet around both sides of each of the posts on your foundation row. Treble crochet. Yeah. So this is a lot of hooking, let me tell you.

Still, I'm pretty happy with the way this looks. You know, all one row of it. Ha!

But it seems pretty straightforward so I don't think I'll have any problems with it. Let's see if I can get this done in July.