See the bright blue sky?  There are about 340 wild fires still burning in CA, but that's down from the 1400 of last Friday, and the wind has shifted so the air is much cleaner.

And Happy Birthday to FullHouse, who is 4 today!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Clawdette! 

Short of leaving them on doorsteps in the middle of the night, I'm pulling out all my recipes for the trusty ones that  people really like.  Sunday night we had dinner with Joan and Will, Will's mom and her husband of 3 weeks, the new husband's grandson and his bride of a month and Will's daughter.  I made Chocolate Zucchini Cake for dessert, and it was very well received.  (Joan - Shirley asked me to have you email this to her.)  It was suggested that this is good enough to enter in the Zucchini Festival Cooking Contest, but I'm never sure about wanting to subject myself to that much scrutiny.

Here's the recipe, because I think good recipes are meant to be shared (and because I thought my copy was lost forever - it was hiding in my favorite Italian cookbook, Cooking From An Italian Garden).

I'll start with the original recipe, then I'll list the changes I always make. 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake (from the San Jose Mercury-News, September 6, 1989, no attribution)

• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 4 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups peeled, grated zucchini, drained in a colander
• 1 6-oz. package of miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together the butter, sugar, oil, eggs, sour cream and vanilla.  Then stir in remaining ingredients, except the zucchini and chocolate chips. 

Fold in zucchini.  Pour into greased cake pan, 13 x 9 x 2.  Sprinkle chocolate chips over top.  Bake at 325* for 40 to 45 minutes.  Do not preheat oven.

Now, for the changes:

1. 6 Tablespoons cocoa at least - what can I say?  I like chocolate!
2. 1 teaspoon of each of the spices
3. I never peel the zucchini, and use at least 3 cups of grated zucchini
4. 1 teaspoon of baking powder
5. Milk or Imo can be used instead of sour cream
6. Everything than can be is non-fat or low-fat, and I use Nucoa margarine (from habit, because it's parve and I used to keep kosher)
   
7. I prefer vanilla powder, so that's what I use
8. I've used white flour, unbleached flour and whole wheat flour - they all work just fine

Finally dye the white yarn I keep buying with the dyes I keep buying.  This should be a fun activity, even though it will be solo - none of my knitting friends is even remotely interested in dyeing yarn!

Also dye the jeans that have faded so much that I refuse to wear them.  They fit well and make my butt look good!  Why am I procrastinating?

Poison the blackberries again if the wind ever stops blowing.  (Never fear, these are wild blackberries which are determined to take over my whole yard.  The berries aren't even sweet.)

Work jigsaw puzzles - we can leave them set out in the front room (at least until we have a party) and it's a great way to wind down and relax.

Learn to make cioppino.

Finally, complete the self-improvement makeover program started this week.  I'm not ready to go any more public than that right now, but in a few weeks details will be revealed. 

Don't get me wrong; there are parts of summer that I do like, but as a season?  Not so much.

I like growing things, and some things - tomatoes, for example - grow best in the summer.  (I'm often pulling productive vines out at Thanksgiving, because I can't stand dealing with them anymore.)

I don't like hot weather.  I don't like dry weather.  

I do like fog.  Summer in the Bay Area tends to be cool - the average summer high in Fremont is 78* and that's even a bit warm but tolerable.  It's too dry - we won't have rain again until late October, if we're lucky (otherwise it may be late November).  Fog is, however, really good.  It's natural air-conditioning, and it keeps things cooler and greener without rain and humidity.

I've never (as an adult) like taking vacations in the summer.  We don't have kids, and don't want to travel when people with kids are traveling.

All in all, I prefer fall and spring, and perhaps even San Francisco Bay Area winter to summer.

That said, here's my summer will list:

1. Paint the front room.  Really, finish painting the front room, because half of the room is done.  I almost want to choose a new color, but at this point it's not going to happen.
2. Eat on the patio as often as possible, and invite people over for dinner every week.
3. Visit open houses and get ideas for updating ours.
4. Declutter.  Every room needs it, and it really isn't that hard.
5. Garden.  A little every day makes a big difference.
6. Knit (see above) whatever I want.  Start project.
   
7. Read. 
   
8. Work of staying healthy, not so much focus on losing weight. Eat lots of wonderful in-season fruits and veggies.  Ride my bicycle for fun, not just for exercise.
9. If I choose, to once again pursue arts and / or crafts that I've enjoyed in the past, besides knitting.  These include: needlepoint, embroidery, crewel, sewing, quilting, pottery.  And perhaps, to finally learn to crochet.

And, here's my summer won't list:

1. Read books just because they made a best-seller list.
2. Be pressured into travel because it's "the season" for it.
3. Obsess over the state of the garden re-design - it's a work in progress!
4. Worry about my tan, or really, worry about my blindingly white skin.
5. Force myself to read "literature" - mysteries are good, and relazing.
6. Pack every moment of every weekend full of activity, just because it's summer.

Knitters on the various lists of which I'm a member constantly debate the merits of project faithfulness and bemoan startitis* as an ill to be overcome.  If you've read this blog for any length of time, you already know that I'm rarely faithful to any project and that I love to start new projects with complete and utter abandon.

Today, I'm going to celebrate my startitis and show the projects I've started in June.  Some of these will be completed soon, others will be frogged, still others will languish in the basket and get worked on by some occasional whim.  Still, I'm happy with each of these for various reasons, and don't regret starting them at all.

I love having a stash that allows me the ultimate knitting pleasure of finding or creating a pattern I really want to knit, and being able to find enough yarn that will work just waiting patiently for its big scene.  

I love being able to "see" what a yarn wants to be - same with fabrics - and then letting us create that together.

I love Mr. Ken because he not only doesn't care how much yarn I have, he thinks I should buy more!

I love the fact that I do finish at least 12 sweaters and 12 pairs of socks just on BART every year, and finish more while watching TV (even just a couple of hours a few times a week = a sweater every month or 2) and open mic listening.

I love (and hate) the fact that my creativity ebbs and flows, and that I have to take advantage of every creative opportunity I get.  I'm still creating from doodles made 10 years ago - it's a good thing I keep my old DayTimers and notebooks! 

A note of explanation:  I love knitting cables and such, however, I cannot count for anything if I'm even a little distracted.  We go to a lot of live music events - open mics, mostly - and I knit.  For those times, I need relatively simple stockinette patterns.  Several of these sweaters are based on the West Side Raglan pattern from Oat Couture.

1: Forget-Me-Not.  The yarn is Wendy Rembrandt, bought a few years ago on eBay. In the skein and knitted, it reminds me of my yard in early spring when the grass is green and the forget-me-nots are blooming in drifts everywhere.

2: Tangerine Dream, yarn is from stash (I think it's called Tricadie, and I have it in a sage-y green and mellow as well).  The yarn is a knitted ribbon, very easy to knit, and quite stretchy.

3: Southwestern Sky, also stash yarn.  I bought this yarn at the Yarn Barn in San Antonio 12 or 14 years ago to make a Chanel-type jacket.  Love the yarn, but I know now that it would be wrong wrong wrong for a jacket of any type.

4:  Pearlspun is the yarn - creamy cotton with shiny coppery rayon bits.  Some from eBay, and some bought from Lee Wards in the going-out-of-business sale about 1993!

5:  Indian Corn, yarn from stash (what a surprise!) bought at Stitches West in two batches a year apart (maybe 8 years ago?).

6:  Autumn Colors, more stash yarn bought at Stitches West sometime.  It's a knitted ribbon tube, and feels like a t-shirt.

7: Too Teal, a Naturally Designs sweate, knit in Paton's Classic Merino.  Color is Too Teal, which is really a rich turquoise color.  I cannot get even close to the right color on my monitor.  This will be relatively mindless soon, because the diagonal pattern is a simple repeat.  I suspect I'll need a cheat sheet for the cable always.

8: Must Have Cardigan from Paton's Street Smarts brochure.  Yarn bought from Stash! just for this sweater, and I never thought I say this:  I wish the sweater was charted!  I'm going to have to chart this puppy or I will love what remains of my mind knitting it.

9:  Zig Zag Top: Yarn from stash, Horstia Tweed bought from Knitpicks back in the days when they didn't have their own yarns!

That's it for the sweaters.  There might be a shawl, a hat, and 2 or 3 socks too, but they managed to escape the camera.  In fact, there are still a few days left in the month, and there are a few more stash yarn projects I'd like to start!  I need to poke around in the attic and bring the yarn down stairs...

*Startitis:  The overwhelming urge to start new projects before existing projects are completed.   

We live closer to the Sonoma fires than the ones in Monterey and Gilroy, about 20 miles inland as the crow flies.  For several days now, we've not seen the sun because it's obscured by smoke from these fires.  Our normally blue sky has a yellow-ish cast.  The air smells and tastes like smoke; there's soot or ash in a fine coating on plants and lawn furniture.

This is the hills behind us, about 1/4 mile away.  It looks foggy, but it's really smoke.

Same hills, about 1/2 mile away, taken about 10 days ago.  See the incredibly blue sky?  (And see the hills covered in dead grass?) 

We're in a "drought condition" according to those who know these things.  Our rainy season stopped fairly abruptly in early March instead of gradually dwindling to nothing in May, and we received only about half our average annual rainfall for this rain year (July 1 to June 30).  What we need now is a good drenching rain.  That will cleanse the air, provide some relief for firefighters, wet the trees and and the tinder dry grasses that are the cause of many of the wildfires: dry grass and dry lightning  is a very bad combination indeed.

Weather guessers say we have a chance for thunderstorms this weekend.  That would be wonderful and unusual.  It rarely rains here from May to October, just when the rest of the country is getting most of the annual rainfall. 

Supergirl 90% Superman 85% Spider-Man 80% Wonder Woman 80% Green Lantern 80% Robin 75% Iron Man 70% Hulk 65% The Flash 55% Catwoman 45% Batman 35%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

That's pretty funny!  I was hoping for Wonder Woma, because I knew my childhood wasn't traumatic enough for Batman.

Your results:
You are Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy 69% Mystique 68% Dr. Doom 62% Apocalypse 59% Lex Luthor 57% Venom 57% The Joker 56% Green Goblin 56% Kingpin 56% Magneto 54% Riddler 53% Mr. Freeze 53% Dark Phoenix 50% Juggernaut 48% Catwoman 44% Two-Face 12%

You would go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

I'm sure my fellow Green Task Force members will find this amusing and appropriate!

Here's what I harvested tonight for dinner:

Across the top is the lettuce that bolted in the heat, the (supposedly) small 8-ball zucchini, and 3 types of beans - Romano (Italian flat) green beans, pea pods, and Blue Lake pole beans. We had the lettuce as a salad, and the Blue Lake green beans tonight.  The zucchini is destined to become (at least some of it) Chocolate Zucchini Bread and the other items will be eaten in the next couple of days.

I have learned a lesson this year:  Don't mix pole beans and tomatoes in the same raised bed!  Here's what it looks like now:

The beans have climbed to the tops of the poles, and are now climbing on the tomato cages and each other!  In the past, I've grown only bush beans, so this is new to me.  Next year, they get a bed of their own with a big trellis.

This bed has tomatoes, Italian Romano beans, eggplant, pea pods.  The tomato plants are covered in baby tomatoes, and a few are starting to turn color.

Look at the corn!  There are little ears on each plant, which means we might actually grow a little corn this year.  There are also tomatoes, parsley and herbs - most noticeably the African Blue basil right in front - in this bed.  

There are no photos of raised beds 4 and 5 today.  Bed 4 is being replanted now that the first crop of lettuce is done, and the chard plants have been moved to Bed 5 with the cucumbers, black eyed peas and yellow wax beans planted from seed a couple of weeks ago.  It's not terribly photogenic right now, but will look good next week.

Knitting continues.  Massive startitis is still the order of the day, but it's my knitting and that's what I'm enjoying now.  I found another pattern in an older VK that I want to knit, but need to rummage in the attic for the yarn - it has several colors, and I think I can sub stash yarn for all of them.  Photos soon. 

Yesterday it was 100*, today 105*.  Tomorrow is supposed to be hot too, but not quite as hot as today. 

Sunday should bring blessed fog, and blessed lower temperatures - perhaps mid-70s - for at least a few days.

I know this is nothing special to folks who live in much of the country.  It's not even special to my family in Texas and Georgia.  My Dad reported that my 97-year-old Grandmother was feeling the heat recently when there were several days of 110* and higher.  He even allowed that he and my Mother thought it was hot.

We have so few (really, they are few and far between) really hot days that most people in our area don't have any air conditioning other than open windows, fans and cross drafts.  It's effective most of the time. When it's this hot, life pretty much stops - lots of knitting and reading instead of gardening and house projects. 

I knew there was an upside to the heat. 

The patio is nearly clean, but look at that yard!  It's a mess, but it's big and I love being able to look out and see the trees and plants.  That's the back half of Mr. Ken's shop on the right.

Most nights from April to November Mr. Ken grills our dinner.  We eat outside by candlelight and it's wonderful. If we get too cold, we make a fire in the firepit and stay toasty warm.

Before dinner we have cocktails and snacks here.  I antiqued that table - it was shiny brass, and that just wasn't the look I wanted.  We watch TV out here too.  We really do live on the patio when it's hot.

We store our patio dishes and such in these Rubbermaid cabinets.  They are meant for garden tools, so I cut shelves for glassware and placemats and dishes.

  Dishes, acrylic glassware, placemat and such for out door use.  It's so nice to have dishes readily available, even though they are taken in to be washed.  

It's been a warm week, and the weekend is predicted to be hot hot hot, so the patio will be our favorite spot for the next few evenings. 

93 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Actually, this is pretty funny!

Mr. Ken often refers to our cats as our kids, so the first time through, I answered all the questions pertaining to children as though I had some, and then entered "12" when asked how many.  (Yes, we do have 12 cats.  We used to have 16, so this is an improvement.)

That was a mistake, because the test accounts for the number of children by increasing or decreasing the score accordingly, and my first score was 155!

I'm good, but not that good!  I did admit that I like to gossip, and I sometimes wear red nail polish, but those are such minor transgressions compared to correcting my husband in public and such.

Who knew? 

(Mr. Ken and I were pretty good at reading each others minds - or so we thought - until we married.  At that moment, those skills and abilities just went POOF! and haven't existed since.)

It's been a busy and productive time. 

• One pair of socks and 1 single sock were finished. 
  
• We've eaten not only the first salad from the garden, but also the last salad from this planting. 
  
• We've had beans and snow peas and zucchini from the garden.
  
• 7 sweaters have been started.
• 3 new socks were started.
• The urge to embroider is back, and I found my stash of patterns, pillowcases and dishcloths.
• Swatches for new sofas for the front room were ordered, and swatches for dining chair seats have been collected.

Nothing much to add - a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Our recommendations document is not ready.

Recommendations have been left out, categories are confusing, spelling and grammar need work.  Fortunately, the City Staff won't be working on this until Monday, so we have the weekend to get it right. 

I'm the lone pragmatist of the group - the other 6 are idealists.  We disagree about transportation issues more than any other.  Part of the group wants to have the City require residents to use mass transit one day a week; I believe we can suggest it, but making it a requirement means that it will be monitored and policed, and there's already talk of cutting staff at City Hall.   That's just one example.

It's been a good experience overall, and even though our 6-month terms are ended, there are at least 3 more commitments for our time that the City has requested. 

Breakfast or no breakfast: Breakfast, please.

Chore I don't care for: Scooping the litter boxes, and doing the complete litter box wash and clean.

Dog or cat: Cats, obviously.

Essential electronics: Computer, printer.  Cell phone and home phone are negotiable, iPod is as well.

Favorite cologne: Champagne (YSL), Beautiful (Estee Lauder), Lovely (?)

Gold or silver: Gold

Handbag I carry most often: Coach Classic in black.

Insomnia: Practically never.

Job Title: Senior Technical Project Manager – IT Infrastructure

Kids: None.  Nieces and nephew are great substitutes.

Living arrangements: With Mr. Ken and 12 cats in a single-family 3 bedroom house on a ½ acre lot in Silicon Valley.

Most admirable trait: Sense of humor.

Naughtiest childhood behavior: I was a perfect angel as a child.

Overnight hospital stay: Appendectomy when I was 12.

Phobias: Some claustrophobia, acrophobia (pretty funny for a pilot!)

Quote:  "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."  Albert Einstein

Reason to smile:  It’s spring, my garden is growing, Mr. Ken, good friends, cats…

Siblings: one younger sister, 2 younger brothers

Time I wake up: 5:30 am during the week, by 7:30 am on weekends

Unusual skill or talent: Finding abandoned kittens

Vegetable I refuse to eat:  I’d rather not eat beets unless they’re pickled, but I do make this kick-ass roasted winter veggie soup that has beets as a base – so I probably don’t refuse to eat any of them.

Worst habit: Starting too many projects of all types.

X-rays: Dental, and I hate them.

Yummy stuff: Movie popcorn, cheese, chocolate, cherries and other fruits in the summer

1.  The last couple of days I've realized that a case of the blahs has had me in its grip for part of April and most of May.  I didn't get a lot done, I was grumpy and grouchy, and it was hard to get started on anything.  My energy level was lower than it's been in years too.  We had very hot weather, which always gives me the blahs; we had cooler than normal weather too.  At any rate, this weekend everything started looking normal and rosy, I had energy to burn, I got things done and I'm happier for it.

2.  My knitting UFOs and other UFFOs have not gotten as badly out of control as I feared - yet!  Now that the blahs are gone, I'm feeling a serious case of startitis coming on.  As was pointed out in KnitTalk, startitis can be defined as Hatikah , which is Hebrew for Hope.  That's how I'm viewing startitis this time around.  I even started and finished the knitting on W from Knitty in May!

3.  I'm an introvert and I need quiet and solitude to recharge my batteries.  I know this, and yet there are times when I want to be social and life gives me chances to do things and be with people and my social batteries get completely drained.  (Interestingly enough, at least to me, the last time I did the Myers-Briggs assessment, my scores had changed a bit.  I'm still INFJ, but my scores in most areas are very close.  Only 2 points separate Extrovert and Introvert, Thinking and Feeling, and Judging and Perceiving.  Sensing and Intuition, however, are very clear and separated by 16 points.)

4.  Joan came over today and we spent some time on the back porch, knitting and chatting.  She checked out the raised beds, and says I need to post photos because they've grown a lot since she last saw them perhaps a month ago.  Noted, and I will do that this week.

5.  Back to UFOs: if you'd asked, I would have said there were at least 40 of them and probably more.  I counted and there are actually fewer than 30!  If I can get really busy this week, I might be able to get 4 or 5 more off the list!  The knitting is done and only finishing remains on them; in fact, Kenobi just needs to have the sleeves set in!  That would be really good!

6.  We've had our first salads from the garden already, and our first zucchini (Roly Poly or Eight Ball variety).  This week I'll need to pick Romano (Italian) beans, and snow peas (again).  Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are setting fruit, and the corn is almost 3 feet tall.  I still want to plant pumpkins and gourds, and there's still time for that.  

7.  This crop of lettuce and chard will be finished this week.  I'm going to replant that raised bed with New Zealand spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes and herbs.  We will need to buy lettuces at the Farmer's Market for a few weeks, but that's OK.

8.  Going through yarn in the attic was a surprise in several ways.  I found yarn that I'd forgotten about (even though it's on my 14 page spreadsheet) and found enough of several yarns to make sweaters that just rose to the top of my list.  In fact, I found enough of 21 different yarns to make 1 sweater (West Side Raglan from Oat Couture) which may make it my next mindless commute and open mic project.  It's the sort of thing I wear for work year round, with slacks or skirts, with or without a jacket.  And it would be a great use for some of the "interesting" yarn I bought with no clear plan in mind.  The pattern is long sleeved, but short sleeves or 3/4 sleeves would be easy to do as well.   And it would certainly showcase the "interesting" yarn.

9.  I also found enough of the specified yarn (!) for several patterns just earmarked.  Based on a couple of blog entries by Bonne Marie Burns of ChicKnits, I revisited several issues of Vogue Knitting, from about 2001 to 2004.  What a treasure trove!  Not only was the Shirley Paden sweater Bonne Marie did on my list (but the turtleneck and pullover aspects had me convinced it would never work), but now I know how to convert it into something I'll actually wear.  There are several other wonderful sweaters in the 2 issues I chose to work with for now, and I'll highlight those in the next few entries.

10.  Notice the wonderful clips holding W together?  They're little hair clips from the Dollar Tree, 24 for a buck (I think that's right, it might be 48).  Whatever!  It's a lot cheaper than the special ones sold in knitting stores and catalogs.  I'm finally learning to embrace my inner thriftyness!  (I'd like to take credit for this, but Ann of SheepShots found and blogged this several months ago.)

One item on the list - certainly not the most pressing or important - was to replace all the antique brass finished door hardware (doorknobs and deadbolts and such) with polished brass. 

(Yes, I know brushed nickel is the current Look, but I don't like brushed nickel and I do like polished brass, and I'm not planning on selling the house anytime soon.)

Anyway, that's the item Mr. Ken decided to tackle first, only he decided to start by replacing the hinges on the side door, which is the one we prefer to use.  When he finished replacing the hinges, it was late and dark and the french doors were just off-kilter enough that once we wrestled them closed and locked, we stopped using them until we could fix the problem.  (Actually, we had to stop using them.  Somehow, the latch no longer lined up enough to keep the door closed, and the deadbolt was broken in this upgrade as well.)

Fast forward to this afternoon.  I came in to a wonderful clean house (thank you Emma and Arturo!) and a note which said "we couldn't get the front door to lock so it's closed but still open".  I checked the front door, which we never use, and it was locked and OK.  Then I noticed the chair up against the side door.  It was holding the door closed, because they hadn't been able to wrestle the lock back into place!

Fortunately, we had a lockset purchased months ago when this project was started.  I did get the deadbolt  replaced and functional so the house is secure.  Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to re-align the one door that's most out of alignment and then replace the handleset.  Of course, the keys won't match the others, but that's a minor issue. 

At the moment I'm happy enough.  Replacing the deadbolt was easy peasy once I remembered to use the long funny screw-like things and not the long screws.  And most important, the deadbolt no longer requires a key to open it from the inside.  

This honey-do list is working really well. 

1. The first hot, sweet, milky sip of tea in the morning.  I've been cycling through different teas for a few weeks, and while I am developing some favorites, I like most of them.  And while I'm at it, what was I "saving" all those teas for?  I had a box of tea bought in London the last time I was there - 10 years ago? - that I finally opened and really enjoyed!

2.  Walking in the back door at the end of a long day, and knowing by the clean smell of the house that the housekeepers have been in and tidied the place and cleaned the bathrooms.  

3.  The first bud on a new plant, and the delightful anticipation until it opens into its full glory.  All that potential coming from dirt!

4.  Sleeping cats.  Need I say more?  They aren't getting into mischief, and cats sleep so hard - they're totally oblivious, and they have such cute little snores.

5.  Turning the heel on a sock is just magic.  Suddenly this tube looks like a sock, and the numbers all work and it's perfect.

6.  The look on Mr. Ken's face as he works on rebuilding the motor for his sports car: intense, alive, connected and interested.  I can still remember when it took the same amount of concentration for him to remember the names of his cats.

7.  Finishing a row of lace knitting (or is it knitted lace - I forget the distinction) without making an error, zoning out, or anything else that makes me tink back 400 stitches to fix.

8.  Getting real mail.  Not a bill, or something to occupant, or even a catalog (and I do love catalogs).  A thank you note from my niece, a quick little note from my 97-year old grandmother, a card from a friend - these things make my week!

9.   Caramels, especially really chewy ones covered in dark chocolate.  Dark chocolate in general...

10. Watching moms and their children, especially little babies.  I've never been a mom, but there's something about a helpless infant that brings out the mom in me, and those moments are very intimate and wonderful to see. 

This may be a regular Thursday thing!

She also likes yarn, and has ever since I've known her.  She doesn't chew it, or slobber on it, or eat it, or decorate the house with it (not that I know any cats that do any of those other things - RIGHT!), she collects it.  Really.

When Sweetie and I finish our daily TV viewing (Perry Mason reruns if you must know) and I move to the office to work, she yowls and fusses loudly.  This is funny because she has the sweetest little voice and tiny little purr.  Then, when I don't come back so she can sit next to me with 1 paw touching, she heads off to get her yarn of the day.  She carries it back to where she plans to nap, and lines it up like kittens in a row, and then sleeps with it.  

Awww. 

She's not finished organizing it yet, but she's resting from the effort.  That cake of yarn in the back is 8 oz of Opal Handpaint sport weight, destined to become a shawl, and that's a lot of yarn for a small cat to carry.  (I just checked again and she's got 7 skeins, balls or cakes of yarn on her pillow.  She's sound asleep, snuggled with her yarn kittens.)

For the record, she loves Mr. Ken.  Of all the men I dated, he's the one she picked for her very own.  She helped nurse him back to health, and she comes when he calls her.  She won't, however, sit on his lap.  Mine is the only lap she'll occupy, and usually for just a few minutes at a time. 

1.  Opening the door and walking into our home every night.  Sometimes it's a mess, and as long as cats and I live here it will never be decorator-perfect, but it's home.  It's my refuge from the world, and the place this introvert goes to recharge her social batteries. 

2.  Driving through the small town where we live.  Yes, I know it's really a district of a somewhat charmless suburb, but it's small and isolated enough from the rest of the city that it reminds me of visiting my grandmother in the tiny west Texas town where she still lives.

3.  Picking dinner - at least part of it - from my garden.  

I've been so fixated on getting tomatoes to set blooms that I sort of totally missed the Rond De Nice zucchini that were ripening already.

4.  Telstar by The Ventures.  I realize that The Ventures were just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I rediscovered this old favorite last summer.  I can't get motivated for my weight training sessions without playing Telstar at top volume all the way to the weight studio.

Heck, let's list just about anything by The Ventures.  At our wedding not yet 8 years ago,  Mr.  Ken walked down the aisle to Walk, Don't Run by The Ventures.  It was the most moving challenge I've ever seen and I was reduced to tears just watching him.  Someday I'll tell the back story that this bit of joy deserves.

5. 

Cat stories with happy endings:  Rachel and Digit, Rae and Floozie, Barb and Edward to name a few.  I'm such a mushball that these stories make me cry, no matter where I am when  I read them.

6.  Waking next to Mr. Ken gives me such a rush of joy that sometimes I'm almost frightened by it.  I am so lucky, and I know it.  He's an inspiration and a wonderful man, a good friend and a  truly kind person.

7.  Walking on the beach just before, or maybe during, a winter storm.  The sky is leaden, the ocean is almost the same, the wind is blowing and the beach is deserted.  The smell is salty and raw, primeval.  No one else is about and the tide pools are full of starfish.  When it's stormy dolphins frolic next to the beach, and whales can often be seen near shore as they migrate to Baja Mexico.

8.  Scents:  Roses and jasmine in the evening.  Citrus blossoms in the morning.  Lime slices in gin and tonic. 

9.  Knitting socks.  Knitting sweaters.  Knitting swatches.  Startitis.  Having a yarn stash larger than some yarn stores so I can always find something to knit.  Teaching myself to knit and knowing no fear of difficult patterns.  Going to  Stitches West  to see what's new.  That first glimpse of the market every year just about takes my breath away.

10.  Color.  I love color.  

11.  Old fashioned stationary and envelopes for writing letters.  My grandmother is 97, and she loves getting mail.  I keep a collection of cards and paper for letters, and send them to people I love.  My ex-mother-in-law is a wonderful woman, and even though her son and  I have been divorced for 14 years, she still has a letter I wrote to her stuck on her refrigerator with a magnet.

12.  Live music gives me chills.  We live in a fairly artsy area, and local restaurants have live music by local artists 3 or 4 nights weekly.   There are 2 local open mics, and occasional concerts.  I love a good orchestra, and can be transported to another plane by a live musical or concert - remember The Boss last month?

13.  My collection of books, mostly mysteries.  They transport me to another world and let me try on other lives.  Words written by Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, and a host of others.

14.  Reading or knitting on the patio when it's just warm enough outside and the air is so soft that you doze between paragraphs or stitches.

15.  Listening to baseball on the radio - preferably a transistor radio - while working in the vegetable garden in the summer.  Baseball is the perfect summer game:  it doesn't move too fast, and once you understand the game you don't need to watch it to know what's happening. 

16.  A well-build and well-insulated house makes me smile.  It's over 100* today (thank goodness that's rare for us - 78* is the average summer high) but it's 78* in the house - without any sort of air conditioning.  Cross-ventilation and window fans keep it pleasant. 

  (For lots more photos, check out www.knitmareknit.blogspot.com .  Joan included photos from Papa John - a Niles resident who is everywhere something interesting is happening, and Matthew Artz - a reporter for the local newspaper.)

The Henkel Building was burning.  It has a long, somewhat checkered past in our little town.  It's been a cannery, and a factory where Agent Orange was manufactured.  It was purchased sometime in the last 15 or 20 years by a German company that did much of the needed decontamination work. 

Of late, there's been controversy about the building.  It's rather an eyesore; boarded up windows are a magnet for taggers - without a few good citizens who patrol for and remove graffiti every day it would be truly awful.  Our city council wants to either preserve it as an historic building or tear it down and build lots of townhouses.  I'd like it to be torn down and a park area with shops created.  

It's certainly less lovely now than before. 

It was a lovely weekend, so much so that I'm sorry to see it end. 

Friday night we were entertained at dinner by a favorite performer, Loren Davidson.  His music is reminiscent of Jimmy Buffett, and it was almost like taking a mini-vacation.  We dined on the patio at Essanay Cafe and listened to Loren and the evening was perfect.  

Saturday we headed over to the Ohlone Flea Market, which is held the 2nd Saturday every month.  Usually we don't find much that we need - probably actually nothing that we need - but there was yarn this time!  I must admit that some of it came home with me.   It's old - old enough that it doesn't appear in any of my reference books- and rather scratchy at the moment.  I'll wash a swatch, and if it's still scratchy it will be made into outerwear (which is probably what I'll make in any case.  The colors are lovely, and there were many other colors that I didn't buy this time.

(The colors are not correct on my monitor!  The yarns are a turquoise or teal, and an olive tweed with lots of chartreuse and emerald bits.  It's also finally been identified as a Marks yarn, made in  Sweden for weaving.  Oh well,  I'm knitting with it anyway if I want!) 

Once back in Niles, we met Joan and Will for lunch at the Nile Cafe, and wandered around the Spring Fling car show.  Joan and I wandered the car show as far as the yarn store, and I bought this beautiful sock yarn.  It's alpaca and there's a separate bit of yarn just for the heels and toes.  I couldn't resist the turquoise and brown combination! 

Sunday I replenished cat food supplies and bought more planting mix for the (last?) raised bed.  It's the home of the black-eyed peas, bush cucumbers, lemon cucumbers and yellow wax beans.  We are expecting a week of fairly serious heat after a cool-so-far spring, so I hope these little plants don't cook in the sudden heat.

At noon I headed into downtown Niles to serve a shift as town docent for the Niles Canyon Railway.  It was a busy Sunday and all Moms on the trains were given roses.   More photos of Niles in a post later this week!

It's 8 am now and I'm exhausted!

So far today this is what I've done:

• Planted an apple tree
  
• Dug up six blackberry roots
• Folded a load of laundry, and put it away
• Changed the sheets on our bed
• Washed a load of black laundry
• Scooped all 4 litter boxes
• Moved 2 boxes of decluttered items into the front room, ready for delivery
• Made breakfast and a pot of tea
  
• Sat with Sweetie to watch Perry Mason, which was pre-empted by some religious show