When Nature Strikes

So, there was some severe weather here in Central Texas on Friday night, 3/25/05. Thought I'd share some photos:

This is the siding and window on the second story of the west side of our home that took the brunt of the wind and hail.


Two of our cars got really banged up, though no broken windows thank God. I find it odd that the minivan and the truck that were out there took almost zero damage. Both are much older model vehicles; maybe that's why?


There are more pictures than these in that photo album if you wanna live some of our March Madness vicariously. :P

On the knitting front: The kimono's back piece is finished and on a stitch holder and the left front is looking good. Though, I'm so exhausted today from yesterday's yard clean-up and headachey from the changing weather that I keep reading the pattern wrong and getting confused, so we'll see about further progress this week. And now that Ana showed me a last few steps in plugging her camera's memory card into the computer, uploading and editing photos, and mucking around with her webpage's galleries, I hope to have more and better WIP and FO photos posted here.

Someone encourage me to finish my damned Soho turtle. Or my grandmother's hat. Each involve easily less than an hour of work, and I want to start a Debbie Bliss baby tanktop, or another stuffed toy, but I'm not allowing myself until I finish something. I just can't seem to take my hands off of that Echo cotton. I love it.

My grandmother made some chicken soup today and sent it over with my dad. It's my favorite soup in the world, tied with the beef soup she makes that's the same recipe just different type of meat falling off the bone, along with cabbage, rice, carrot, celery, cilantro, lime juice... Yanno, there will definitely be some perks to having them living so nearby.

How inertial can one person get? I reached my desired 13 1/2" on the back piece of my baby kimono almost an hour ago, and it's still lying on my desk with the tape measure on it just because the pattern is in Ana's room and I don't want to go get it.

I love the color of this Echo cotton. I really do. Knit up, the colors of the variegation (deep khaki green, very yellowy lime green, rich turquoise) and the way it patterned are so very Monet. I can almost picture water lilies on it. :)

So, I'm spending a mostly de-stressing afternoon at home alone. Dog dramas are minimal at least for the very present moment. Reese's vet visit went well; her bite was only mildly infected. She and Tyler are peaceful together. Katie took Hannah with her to visit friends. Tinny is relaxed and happy at my dad's now that it's not night time nor thunderstorming like this morning. Ana and my dad went to get cellphones and a family plan. She was sooo excited when she called from her New Cellphone!! She thinks they got a great deal. My eyes are still all big. I guess I'm turning into a miser.

Check it out... 2 posts in 1 month! Maybe it's spring after all. :)

Stephy: where ELSE would a person keep a hairtie??
Monkee: did you know your brotherling has groupies??

Well, the big hoopla in the last week has been the ballooning tendency of our immediate family to have a life implosion and then bring it to our doorstep. Will's sister Katie actually seems to be settling in pretty well, but as is the case when you break up with a longtime ex at the same time your job goes to shit, is still often stressy. And NOW, with less than 1 week's notice, my father has broken up with the lady he's been with since I was in high school and is getting all moved into an apartment less than 2 miles away from here.

Ripple effect. (Recapping for the sake of posterity.. I'm trying to be a better blogger! Skim past this, KnittyFolk.) My dogs decided enough was enough, and rather than quit their jobs, go on a drinking binge, or break up with ...wait, I guess that's what they did. They broke up with each other. :( After one nasty fight, I spent a couple of days of tense, tearful attempts to get them back together again, then fell sick and exhausted, helpless and hopeless. The decision had been made to have Tinny put to sleep. Then my father stepped in and offered Tinny a home with him where he can be an only dog, not to mention pampered and probably overfed, and where I can easily visit anytime I want. Perfect! And to ease my stress-levels and allow me to get a little shut-eye again, my friend Eve (sent by GOD) offered to babysit Reese until dad gets settled in and can take Tinny. So, the house has been dogfight-free since Tuesday night, I'm getting over my cold, and things seem back to just a normal level of stress and insanity, rather than on the verge of complete collapse.

On the baby front, poor Ticky doesn't seem to be suffering much from dealing with such a stressed out mom. He's been feisty and hungry, as always. I got my first stretch mark. It's almost week 24. I can't believe it's going this fast.

The big news of the month: IT'S A BOY! The big sonogram was on Friday (3/4) and it was a fun one; was so cool having Will there. I wish I could say I had some sono scans to post as my first internal photos. But alas, I'm lazy and broke.

Instead, have you seen the gallery Ana made for me at her new website, www.meowingdog.net?? It's rockin', and her homepage photo is the cutest ever. :) Many kudos to Wendy for all the hard work she puts in for the coding!



P.S. The photo is ENORMOUS on my screen. Is it on yours? Please comment and tell me. I'll have to figure out a way (read that, make Ana figure out a way) to resize it. OR as Ana says, maybe it's just because MY screen is set to 800x600 because I am blind, and it actually looks okay on everyone else's screens.