Latest crochet baby blanket

I haven't made anything in a while but a friend recently invited me to her baby shower and of course I have to bring a gift so to the yarn stash I go.

I've realized that a lot of the blanket patterns on the LionBrand site are too small to be practical (c'mon, a 24" square blanket is just not that useful, even to a baby), but they're cute so I just have to modify them to make them bigger. The only problem with this project was that I really needed at least 3 skeins of Caron's Simply Soft yarn in a single color to make the blanket big enough, but I only had 2 skeins of about three different colors and I just really didn't want to go buy more. So I decided to add bands of a contrasting color (the blue) to make my stash work. This was the final result.

I think I'll add one of the little elephant amigurumis to round out the gift. Hope she likes it!

Edit: Here's what the final package looks like. The red tag is care instructions. I missed the shower on Sunday as it turns out because our volleyball tournament went waaaay late so I'll be giving this to the mama-to-be later this week.

Thief!

I am sooooo mad! Squirrel thieves are taking all my Asian Pears! After frisky's comment on my last post about the tree I counted how many pieces of fruit we actually had and it was something like a couple of dozen. About a week ago I noticed that several leaves were lying around on the ground around the tree and found a half-eaten pear still attached to the branch. So annoying, but it was just one pear--at least I think so. At the time I didn't notice any other ones missing, but maybe I didn't look closely enough.

I decided to just watch and see what would happen since I wasn't sure what ate the pear so I wasn't sure how to prevent it. Then on Sunday, as we were running out the door, I noticed more leaves on the ground so I went closer to inspect. I had used red ribbon to tie up some of the branches to help support the weight of the fruit and I realized that one of the ribbons was looking really slack--because there was no fruit left on it!!! Something had plucked all the fruit clean off the branch! So then I counted how many pears I had left--eight. Eight out of twenty-four!

I talked to my neighbors today and they told me they saw a squirrel run off with a whole pear in it's mouth the other day so now I know what the little thief is. Last night I tied plastic bags around the remaining bunches of fruit to ward off the predators, until I could figure out a better solution. My mom told me to build a giant cage around the whole tree, but that'll look so ugly in the middle of my yard. So after some Internet research it looks like I'll have to get some sheet metal to wrap around the trunk so the squirrels can't climb up. That's tomorrow's project I guess. Oh, and in the meantime I lost another one sometime this afternoon/early evening so now we only have seven pears left :(

Here's a pic I took today so you could see how big the pears are now:

We got pepper sprayed tonight

We stopped by our friends' house tonight to drop off a few things for them to borrow for their camping trip this weekend. They had gone to REI earlier to buy some bear canisters but the store was sold out so instead they got this bear spray, a.k.a. "Counter Assault Bear Deterrent." For some reason our friend was really excited to show us how the bear spray works so he sprayed it into the air in front of him as we stood a few feet away on either side of him. He didn't account for wind currents though and from my vantage point I could see the spray start drifting back towards him....

He starts coughing, I don't think much of it. Until a second later as it started drifting up towards me and I'm like, "Hmm, my mouth and throat are burning a little...OK, now that's really uncomfortable." I rush into the house and rinse out my mouth, having no idea if this is actually the right thing to do but not really caring at the time either. Willy and his mom (yes, his mom was with us), who didn't see the spray cloud from the side they were standing on, proceeded to walk through it. Even our friend's poor dog got a whiff of the stuff and was wheezing! All of us were standing around in their kitchen, in various stages of coughing, tearing up, sniffling, etc. It was all a little hilarious, to be honest, and the wife was laughing uncontrollably, it was just so silly. I have no idea why the husband was so eager to show us this stuff! Boys--go figure!

I luckily was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, but poor Willy was in shorts and a t-shirt and his mom was also in shorts. So now Willy has ice packs attached to his arms and neck trying to calm down the burning sensation, and his mom has Gold Bond medicated powder all over her legs. They aren't kidding when they say in the product description "Use with extreme caution—if not used properly, it can disable the user, rather than the bear"! Now we almost feel bad for the poor bear that might get sprayed by this stuff!

Some actual fruit of our labor

I haven't done a pear tree update in a while and I could use a post talking about something we're doing successfully :P The fruit has been getting bigger and bigger, and is probably about 2" across now. I've had to tie up some of the more heavily laden branches, and discovered today that one of them had actually already snapped from the weight of all the fruit. I pruned some of the fruit early on, but they're just growing faster than the branches.

Anyway, as I was tying up one of the branches today I knocked off one of the pears. It seemed solid enough to try a taste, and I was happy to find that it was pretty decent! Not tart at all, though not totally sweet yet either. Willy really liked it too. I didn't take a pic of it before I peeled it, but here are the remains :)

Griffin has joined the family

It's been six days since Griffin, our rescue-adopted poodle mix, came to live with us. He's an adorable and sweet little guy, but it's definitely been an adjustment for all of us.

His foster parents dropped him off Sunday night and he sniffed all over the house, exploring. He has a clear preference for women over men and stuck to his foster mom for a while. He then quickly reattached to me over the last few days and follows me around so closely that sometimes his nose bumps into the back of my leg or he steps on the heel of my slipper as I walk.

He walks well on the leash...well, he does when he's willing to walk. We've discovered a stubborn streak in him, and the last couple of days he's seriously been digging his heels in when we try to take him for a walk. Who's heard of a dog who doesn't like to walk?! We can't figure out why, except for possibly that he's tired since he's had a lot going on these last two days (a couple of longish walks at 20-25 mins. and also meeting a lot of new people). But just because he won't walk doesn't mean he doesn't have to go--we made the mistake of letting him back inside once since he wouldn't budge and he proceed to have an accident in the house five minutes later.

Housebreaking has definitely been one of the big issues for us. I feel like the fosters weren't totally forthcoming about the fact that he isn't really housebroken at all. We suspect that he may have been puppy pad-trained in the house with his previous owners--argh.

Another issue is some slight separation anxiety, which could be a real problem. He hates being left alone and will whine and bark if we confine him and "leave" (even if we don't really leave, just pretend and are quiet around the corner). So between the SA and needing to be housebroken, we basically have to watch him constantly and it's not good for him to not be comfortable spending time by himself. Plus it's exhausting.

In case it's not obvious, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by what we've taken on. Between housebreaking, crate training, trying to deal with SA, teaching things like sit and down, and a million other little things, it's just been an overwhelming week. I truly tried to prepare for this by doing a bunch of research and reading beforehand, but it doesn't really prepare you for the reality. Yes, I know, it sounds like having a kid. In all honesty, I'm not sure we made the right decision in adopting a dog. I know I need to give it more time, but so far I'm not enjoying the experience or time with Griffin all that much, and I really should be :(

We might be getting a doggy!

I am so excited! We're going to meet a rescue dog on Saturday morning and I can't wait!!!

We've been talking about wanting a dog for years now but never did much about it. Finally I started doing some research on dog ownership (since Willy and I will both be first-time dog owners) and started looking online for a dog that would be a good fit for us. We always wanted a rescue dog, something small to medium sized (probably like 25 lbs. or less), something that didn't shed too much, something with hair instead of fur, and something that would get along with other people and kids. We pretty much knew after doing some research on breeds that we wanted a poodle mix. I did some hunting on PetFinder.com but hadn't found the right companion for us. That and a lot of the rescues on that site required some pretty high fees, which I couldn't stomach after being unemployed for so long.

Then I met someone who does rescue work in her free time and she told me about a poodle mix they just got. He's tiny--only 5 lbs. right now but the woman who's fostering him thinks he could be up to 15 lbs. once he gets to a normal weight. Here's the first picture I got of him, where his hair is totally overgrown:

His hair was really matted as it turns out so they ended up having to shave him. Look how tiny he is afterwards!
So he needs to be fed and given some TLC, but otherwise his foster mom told me he's a great little guy. Listens well, is smart, gets along with other dogs and people...basically sounds like a great dog for first-timers and the perfect fit for us. I hope he'll be coming home with us soon!

Pretty flowers from our yard

I love cut flowers but never buy them because I'm way too frugal. I love my orchids and other plants, but there's something about flowers in a vase that's just different. Luckily we have a few pretty perennials planted (say that 3x fast) around the yard and here's what I cut today:

The daisies are just too cute, and the other two are varieties of astilbes. I can't take credit for having planted any of these, they were already here when we bought the place. I did buy and plant more astilbe bulbs earlier this spring though since I love their delicate, pretty look and they're coming up slowly but surely.

Don't the astilbe's remind you of fireworks? Speaking of which, we saw the most amazing fireworks show for the 4th of July this year. We went to the Cambridge side of the Charles River with my sister and her boyfriend and the vendors for the show this year did an absolutely amazing job. I wish I'd taken my camera with me; the picture to the right is stolen from the Internet. Boston seriously has the best fireworks display anywhere, IMHO. We would have liked to be on the Esplanade for the show and be able to hear the Boston Pops play but it's not as easy to get on there as when I was a kid growing up here. There's barracades and National Guard and a bazillion people now so I think you have to go pretty early in the morning to secure a spot in front of the hatch shell.

Cartoons and dinner, oh my!

Willy and I decided to try a new-to-us Thai place last night that I found on Yelp. Tree Top Thai got some great reviews and is close by so I sent the hubs off to pick up some Crazy Noodles, Country Style Pad Thai, and Thai Fried Rice (we got enough to have lunch today too). The Thai friend rice was a little sub-par, but the other two dishes were pretty yummy and we'd go back. But what really put us over the must-return edge was something else that came with our dinner.


On the restaurant's web site they say that one of the employees is also an artist and his/her art hangs in the restaurant. Well look what that artist drew on our takeout bag:




How cute is that?! And our fried rice came labled as "Fly Rice" with a smiley face :) Dinner with a side of humor--I love it!

Wanna See a Tree Update?

Here's the Asian Pear tree as of a couple of days ago:

It's definitely thriving and there are lots of little pear fruits all over it. They're still small, maybe a 1/2" in diameter or a little less. But they're definitely little pears! Who knows if they'll get to be eating size, but it's still fun to see :)

Happy 4th Anniversary to Us!

I'm a little late in posting this since our anniversary was last Friday 5/29, but we were away in Bar Harbor, ME celebrating. This was on Sand Beach in Acadia National Park. We wanted to do more hiking and exploring of the park, but unfortunately it rained most of the time we were there. Can't complain too much though; we had good food (I ate lobster four days in a row), got upgraded to the honeymoon suite of the B&B we stayed at, and had a great time just being together. It's amazing how quickly four years have gone by (and eight years since we met). Time really does fly when you're having fun!