So much to catch up on!

Been knitting mindlessly when we get movie time, DH and I, since school began. My MIL is here staying with us again, and has been a wonderful, patient "Ruby the kitchen maid," as well as accompanying her son through scans and attending a picnic with him for Team in Training (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's great fundraising marathon groups).

Yep, I'm working on baby blankets. It seems ironic to have knitted so much on these items when we're in the midst of oven-like weather. Seriously, 100+ temperatures most days (translating into 90+ in my classroom), has all left me pretty thick-headed and blah. Weather should improve after tomorrow. Head of school has finally gotten the memo about our misery. Next heatwave is likely to be next spring, so they have several months now to get something in place that works better than a ceiling fan (which was the stopgap, and along with three other fans, only brought the temps down into the high 80s).


But when at home, knitting in air conditioned rooms has been relaxing. I'm just knitting up Baby Burrito Blankets for upcoming hatchlings. One in "Be Mine" (Patons) and the other an ice aqua Berroco "Plush." Slight cost difference!! But both are lovely and cushy, and stretchy. I think of them as "BBB's" because, remember when you bring home a newborn and all he/she wants is to be wrapped up tight for the first week or so? Well, these will be perfect for that, and warm besides. We had some thermal waffle fabric blankets when ours were at this stage, and they wrapped up tight but weren't warm. OK, that didn't matter, since all our girls were born at the end of the summer, but these babies will arrive in the winter!

DMIL has also been knitting, on her epic blanket for DH. It is now almost framed in seed stitch, and she is working outward from that frame to complete it. Pictures when complete!

I have the sleeves to finish on Singing Daughter's Quidditch sweater, and then the seaming and neckline, but that will just have to wait a few weeks for a knitter with the brains to think while doing the stitches. Right now, that ain't me!

Did I mention that I have not been in full possession of my faculties? The other morning, while DH slept, I was getting dressed for work, quietly and with the goal of not waking him. It was actually almost dark (fall has arriven!) so I hunted for my brown sandals in the closet, and found one, and gradually realized I couldn't find the other. Rooted around for a minute and then, aha, there it was. Put it on, went to school, did some work, and then, glancing down at my feet, I saw that I had done this--




Middle schoolers love a good oops, so I guess I provided it for them. I felt so embarrassed and sheepish about it at first that it was like being in junior high again myself--I wanted to race home and get the mistake fixed. But that was not to be, and all day I got several good laughs out of it. I would conclude that one possible lesson learned is "Don't buy the same shoes in different colors," but hey, when you have foot problems as I have had, if you find something comfortable, you get it in three colors!!

Cancer update: DH had scans, as I mentioned, last week, and now the results are to be passed on to Stanford's Oncology Dept. for a thorough review. Tomorrow we get to find out preliminary results (if not next treatment options) from his own oncologist, but we are pretty sure the lymphoma is not completely eradicated. I'll update with more when we know more. DH is keeping pretty positive, and we are both just doing the next thing, the Zen approach to so much in life.

In other news: Meanwhile, World-Saving Daughter is now engaged to her swain from San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, but has returned to Connecticut to school for her last year of undergraduate studies. She left him her Skype headset so that they can see each other while talking, to make the miles seem fewer. She goes back to Mexico in November over her longish Thanksgiving break to spend it with him, and with his family. She tells me it's 73 days, but who's counting?

We expect she will be living in Mexico for at least the next two years, doing research for the first year and in a Master's program the second. All by itself that is a lot to adjust to, but the idea that she is a grown woman deciding to cast her fate/lot with someone we haven't ever met, well, it's strange. Not bad, just an adjustment. DH pointed out that since having met Francisco del Carmen Martinez Martinez, she is the happiest we have ever seen her as a young woman, so that counts hugely in his favor. 8^) Did I mention he has a degree in electrical engineering? (DH is a mechanical engineer. So that must also count in FDCMM's favor.)

Even so, Dad asks why they have to marry (isn't it hilarious to live in a new era when parents want their daughter not to marry, even if it means that she is shacking up with her BF anyway--the times they have a'changed!!), and at present the marriage date is slightly open-ended, but they are aiming for next summer. A traditional wedding in the clothing of that town (apparently in Mexico, weaves and styles are precisely delineated by your town or region), in the Catholic church (this is a development for our nondenominational, not-certain-she-believes daughter!), followed by a second small wedding here in Cali in her parents' own back yard (a tradition in my husband's family, according to WSD, but it's a tradition only begun with our own marriage 29 years ago!).

Life is certainly full of the unexpected, and it is lovely when the unexpected is a wonderful, happy surprise. So at present, we work toward a way to get together and meet Paco (his nickname) at Christmastime, as well as hope that DH's health will allow for some travel.

Enough for now. I'm am getting too parenthetical. 8^) Hope it's pleasant weather where you live, and that you are getting in plenty of good knitting time.

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."
-- George Bernard Shaw