missed the puppy but got the sock

One nice thing about being constantly slightly queasy is that I've lost 10 pounds in the past 3 weeks. I'm no longer confined to ginger snaps and jello, but food is just not that appealing. We had cake at the office last week and I was honestly able to say I didn't want any. Not the best way to lose weight, but I'll take it however I can.


A friend came over last night with her new BC puppy. I'm a little worried--this pup is from working parents, and these folks are used to toy poodles and Yorkies. But she's sure a cuddly little thing--8 weeks, I think. She's a tri; you don't see a lot of tri-colored BCs. Sables are even more rare, at least here in the US, and there were either 3 or 4 in this litter. I got so carried away cuddling and playing with her that it didn't occur to me to come get my camera and take pictures.


The Ts were thrilled. The "gate" to the puppy pen is a 4 x 8 sheet of plastic lattice that slides behind the compost pile for storage. I slide it across the opening to the pen and hold it in place with a bungee cord, so you can imagine the results with 130 pounds of excited GSDs standing with their front feet on the top. I carried the puppy, whose name is Molly, over to the gate for them to investigate. Molly was very brave, and Taenzer was really quite gentle when she sniffed her. Timber got really excited and spent the rest of the visit dashing up and down the fence and barking a high-pitched, excited bark--either "play with me" or "what a great toy!" I wasn't quite sure which. Molly decided she didn't really like being barked at by a big hairy hooligan and either sat in my lap or curled up against her mom's feet. When she was at mom's feet, she did the puppy thing of chewing on everything within reach--grass, dead leaves, sticks, rocks. I kept taking things away from her. I finally got her a tennis ball, but it wasn't nearly as interesting as grass, leaves, sticks, or rocks! (I'll never forget going through the stage with Stella when I was sure she would think her name was "No-here-chew-this"!)


It's hot here--94 at 6 p.m. It won't have cooled off much in half an hour when I take them out, but the mosquitos are so bad that we can't wait til later. We may not be able to stay out very long.


The Cannon Beach sock is being reknit with 6 scallops instead of 7. When I've got a couple of more inches along I'll try it on and see if it's going to be okay. The Old School Tie sock is about halfway down the foot. I've got an Opal 6-ply sock on size 1s that I'm finishing the gusset on. It's my therapy sock--self-patterning, no ribbing, so I don't have to look at it, but it gives me something to do with my hands when I'm seeing my therapist. I thought I should do the heel and gusset at home, since that takes more concentration. I did some yarn snipping to make the heel a solid color, and I was going to make some booties for my new nephew out of the snipped-out bits, but I can't find them. :-P Not a fancy sock, but it serves its purpose.




I'm envious of all the bloggers who live in the country and post beautiful pictures of where they live. My house has the main east-west drag a block to the north, with train tracks a block north of that, and a series of fast-food joints downwind. The street in front is one of the main east-west one-ways through town. One result is that it can be pretty noisy. But apparently all the students left town for the long weekend and everyone else stayed home and grilled, and when we were out Sunday evening there were moments when it was completely silent. It made me long for a place in the country once more. I wonder if that unfinished house on 3 acres is still available?