hot hot hot

we are in the middle of a seven day heat wave, which is defined by a three day stretch where the temp. is above 90 degrees. A seven day heat wave well that is pretty self-explanatory.

To combat heat I have done several things.

1) swimming! note even the sharks are hot and just laying around.


2) low energy and heat output chicken watching!



3) eating lavender ice cream!

4) more low energy and heat output cat stalking!

5) and following Candide advice, cultivating my garden, where this lovely rose bloomed!

I have also played tennis and golf but that seemed to have the effect of not keeping me cool. On Saturday, I played in a tennis final when I lost about 6 pounds of sweat.

stay tuned for more cooling activities as the heat wave goes for eight days.

events around town

More pictures not rotated! The excitement continues while KD is in China.

Best news is our computer is updated, de-trojan horsized and RAM fortified. It is running like the well oiled machine it always could be. Thanks DL.

This week I changed toilet seat (wow!) It involved an exciting trip to Home Depot where no one was willing to help me, and any questions were met with contemptuous stares.



Our trap did not catch a ground hog but it did yield us this. Raccoons are pretty dignified almost cat-like. The city is coming to take this one away.

Finally, I got the thanks for showing up but you still lost plaque. I can add it to my collection of other sports memorabilia.

We got some much needed rain; garden is looking good (pictures in next post.)
Off to school for more summer work (picture censored by SCC.)

Pennypack

Well KD and dad have been gone for three days. It is hot here again but not so, so humid. Today was our share pick up. A lot of good food, but the taters and cukes are the highlight of the day. We have visitors for the chickens, and they are getting their exercise running around. I will be offline a couple of days while to computer gets fixed, which is okay because I hope to be in a tennis tournament both days. I hope China is great, and the time change is not horrible.

Eat your vegetables!

And they are off!

Well Kristina and her dad are off to and in China. Here they are at 5:44 in the morning getting ready for there plane ride of many hours. Notice the tiny amount of luggage they have.

I have taken over blogging responsibilities for Kristina and am charging with showing her that all is well while she is gone.

Here is the photographic evidence taken with our new digital camera

Chickens are good and happy!

Flowers are in bloom and happy after a bunch of rain last night!

Sock tan is still strong and distinct

Posting skills at an all time low. It is not clear how to rotate this image, but I will figure it out later. I am off to play tennis, while Kristina might just be waking up at 5am China time?

Kutztown Festival

I'm not feeling terribly creative right now...strategically packing for a three-week trip to China has got my brain a little fried. But we recently went to the Kutztown Festival and there are some things worth remembering. Such as:

The fact that I need to buy a home in the country so that I can get some of these:

And the beauty of this peacock who, for all his radiance and shimmying, couldn't get the darn peahen to notice him.Being surrounded by crafts, and men who cross stitch.

Pickles on a stick.

Followed by pierogies on a stick. French fries on a stick.
And the momentary (and alas, not captured on film) ice cream on a stick.

Sheep shearing and the purchase of the softest ball of angora yarn (followed by a visit with angora rabbits and the knowledge that I must have one).

A quilt auction (this one fetched $7,800). And the following day, searching for antiques...perfect diner, perfect food.
And so, with a few more tweaks to the packing technique and a day full of distinctly American food (diner food was a good start), I am ready for China!

Getting Ready for a Craft Show, Getting Ready for China

OK, two big things on the horizon:

First, I'm doing a craft show tomorrow night in Philly. I was pretty happy with the outcome from this show last year and out of all the craft shows that I've done, it's one of the best venues for my work. So I'm slowly working my way through organizing inventory and getting everything together on my handy-dandy luggage cart (yard sale find: $3) so that I can wheel kdmade around Broad Street. Despite the fact that I have lots to do to get ready, I find myself futzing on the computer or in the craft room.

I didn't really need to make two more necklaces, but this is what happens when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

The really delicious part of all of this is that procrastinating for the craft show is just a way to procrastinate on all of the packing that I need to do for my rapidly approaching trip to China. That's right, China. In a whirlwind of planning, I managed to hook up with a cultural/environmental trip to China, find some funding at school to pay for a part of it, and convince my Dad to come along with me. We'll be away for three weeks and the giant bite that that it's going to take out of my chicken-watching summer is only just now starting to dawn on me. Andrew tells me to relax, promising that he'll take the blog reigns for the time that I'm gone to keep me (and you) updated on the goings-on around home. I anticipate many, many golf pictures.

In any event, not that I post with any great regularity, but things are going to wind down around here for a little while. But when I come back, I hope to have lots of great photos and a not-too-severe addiction to NyQuil (13 hour plane ride - hoo, boy) so that blogging can continue in earnest.