gerisullivan | 14,287 things make a blog post

Readers will be reassured to know I'm going to mention far fewer than that:

1) The Very Bad Lawnmower continues to work off its karmic debt. Shoulder-high Queen Anne's Lace and chest-high blooming thistles growing in my front yard are now mulch, as is the rest of the meadow that sprung up since my last mowing at the end of May.

2) There's still the hillside to mow. I started with the mostly-flat front lawn to confirm that my long-since post-surgical abdomen didn't have any difficulties wrestling the 70# mower. No twinges: yay! I hope that hold true through the rest of the experience. It's a mere three weeks since I did myself no favors by hauling soda and bheer around on the Sunday of Anticipation and I'm glad the immediate cessation of heavy lifting that followed saved me from further problems.

3) Within a few hours, days, or weeks, I'll be a great-aunt. (The due date is September 8th and last Tuesday's ultrasound showed the baby boy weighing 8 pounds, 13 ounces, so anytime now is fine. Really.) Best wishes to my niece and her husband through their final days of pregnancy and through all the many adventures of parenthood.

4)

carnyjack is coming out for the September Brimfield show and a carnival glass auction, too. It will be good to spend time with him.

5) After a couple of years of knitting most everything on needles sizes 6 through 11, I've jumped down to 3s and lace-weight yarn. Lace patterns are much trickier at this scale. After several hours of experimentation, I'm going with a solid block pattern for this first outing. I'll save the slip slip knit, yarn overs, and passing the slipped stitch over for another project, and will likely start with a lace scarf rather than an entire lace shawl.