Birthday Loot and How Guitar Hero Gave Me Chapped Lips

The first of the three (and a half) orders made with my birthday money is in. My parents and sister gave me a Loopy Ewe gift certificate and on Friday night (yes the instant I saw the gift certificate . . . why do you ask?) I placed an order with Sheri for some pretty pretty roving.This is "She Sells Sea Shells" from Enchanted Knoll Farm available both at Loopy Ewe (yarn here, roving here) and Etsy
This one's "Tanzanite" from The Dyeing Arts (roving only). Both are merino superwash and weigh 4 0z.

My shipment was packed in a clear vinyl Loopy Ewe tote bag with a little note welcoming me to the Loopy Groupies.

and as I looked admiringly at it, I realized that there was more in it than there ought to be.

See that red tissue paper? Evidently the tote was not the end of my Groupie goodies. I pulled everything out and found all of this:

Two skeins of Regia 6 ply in "1133", a crampon style key chain, and five starlight mints (Loopy Kisses . . . . I hear they're a little more chocolate oriented in the cooler weather).

After I took everything out and played with it a little bit and then put it away I noticed that Tachi was behaving more oddly than usual. It turned out that a little friend had come in with my package and she'd caught him under one of our end tables. It was a very small green anole and she left him alone when I told her to. I caught him, grabbed the camera and then we went outside for a photo session (blurry hand photo included for scale). I last saw him on one of the Dwarf Ixora in the front garden.

Mathboy and I spent Saturday celebrating the July birthdays. There are three of us within a week of each other (well actually four, Mathboy's cousin has a two year old who was born on Mother of Mathboy's birthday but she lives a few hours away so her celebration was another time) so we all get together and have one happening for all of us. Bro in law brought Guitar Hero for Wii with him and we all had a go. I found out that I'm guitar hero challenged and in spite of being right handed am forced to play lefty. If you look at the photo of my hand above, you might be able to see a scar in the center of my hand. I was born with a hole about the size of a dime in my palm and it caused some permanent nerve damage in my left middle finger. Anyways, Mathboy liked GH so much that we picked up our own copy the next day and we've been playing it together a little each day. This is where the chapped lips come in. Turns out that when I'm concentrating really hard I pull my lower lip up over my upper lip and if I do it often enough . . . well, pass the Carmex please!

Birthdays and Monkeys

Ok, well, no monkeys really. On Wednesday I went to Lowry Park Zoo on a field trip and while I did see lots of monkeys I was more interested in seeing and saying hello to some of the newer residents. I was disappointed by the absence of the cheetah but there was a lovely F150 in his or her enclosure. I chose not to photograph that because I see more than enough pickups on a day to day basis. Something that did catch my attention was this:

The vignette is supposed to give you an idea of a long abandoned safari camp somewhere on the "Dark Continent". I was highly amused at the frosty cool bottle of Zephyrhills water perched on top of the rusty old camp stove and started to take a picture . . . not even noticing the Zoo guys in the background. They asked if they could help me with anything and I laughingly told them I thought their water was funny and why. They chose to add to the humour by displaying the shiny new DeWalt drill they were using on the "campsite".

After I'd toured the African section I stopped on the way out to see the (relatively) new African Penguin exhibit where this guy showed a deep interest in my shoes. I suspect that, like everyone else, he was trying to figure out how they stay on my feet. (more on that another time)

Now, I didn't take any pictures of monkeys but I did giggle a little about the Orangutans' plan for what to do when it's far too hot out to move. Evidently I've been underestimating the cooling power of straw and cotton sheets:

The Tufted Deer worried me a little bit. What herbivore needs fangs like that?

Near the tufted deer there was a Nicobar Pigeon being victimized by a much smaller Bleeding Heart Dove which amused me because somehow the pigeon reminded me of the Predator from the AVP movies.

I think the Bearded Pigs are new too or at least I'd never noticed them before but they certainly are well named:

Last but not least was this beautiful fellow . . . sorry I don't have any obstruction free photos. I could have waited for the child to move but more crowded in and I wanted to fondle!

I asked his minder what happens to his fleece upon shearing and she told me a sad tale full of birds nests and chew toys for tigers. Evidently there is a volunteer at the zoo who spins but she was given the fleece from some of the llamas after they were shorn last and never got around to spinning it so they've been using subsequent fibre elsewhere. *sigh*

I wandered back to my bus after I was done with the zoo (well, done with the heat really) and sat in the shade with my fan going and knit upon the never-ending-beige-beast-of-doom.

No pictures of it yet . . . one of these days!

Today Mathboy is taking me to Cypress Gardens for my birthday. This is the first time in our married life that we get to do something fun for it! Two years ago he had to be in Texas for the week and last year we had to scrub down the Big Yellow Beast for annual inspection (we smartened up this year and paid a coworker to do it. Hooray for free enterprise!)

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

Well heck. I was all set to show pictures of the garden (such as it is) and the National Zoo in D.C. and some of the yarn Mathboy bought for me and the Mimosa in progress and I've just realized that all photos are in Mathboy's laptop which is currently at work with him.

....To be continued

Happy Independence Day!

Fyi my other choice was this . . . funny yes, appropriate? Probably not.

Happy Canada Day!