One More Picture From the Blimp (Or Two)

I was just thinking today, after feeling rather ground down by the return to work, that just a few days ago I was aloft, feeling giddy with excitement and the wonder of looking down at the world from up in the sky.

So whatever difficult moments I have, I can close my eyes and remember how the wind felt on my skin, how the world felt so much larger, and how R and I got to see the place he asked me to marry him, seven years ago.

So this week I will try to remember how the little stuff doesn't really matter, because it's the big stuff we remember, the stuff I want to remember. Like this:

Like Riding A Space Whale

Today R and I got to take a trip on the Goodyear Blimp. It was very fun. I didn't anticipate liking it so much, but it was really cool to get to fly in it.



Our pilot, Kristen, explained that we had to pay attention and be able to step up on the ladder to get into the blimp. It was strange, because I kind of assumed that the blimp was tethered down and remained stationary. It is actually tethered to a mast in the center of a circle of concrete and rotates constantly around the mast. There is a kind of wheel thing it sort of rests on. Someone is there, watching it, all the time to make sure nothing bad happens (like with inclement weather or loss of pressure, etc).

We flew over the Port of Los Angeles and got to see the coast. It was really strange to look down and see our shadow on the water.



It was beautiful to see the world from that perspective as well as fascinating to get to see the Port of Los Angeles from that angle.



It was amazing. The ascent was utterly weird- it was a really quick jump to the cruising altitude, and the whole blimp sort of rocks from the front to the back in the wind. It is hard to describe it, but it was something like riding a giant rocking horse, or a... um. Like a Something. A space whale. That's the best explanation. If there were whales that lived in space and you could ride them and the lack of air was something they could kind of swim in... Er, yeah. Space whales.



I was really excited to knit on the flight. I was dorkily excited to do this. I had these visions of Kinnearing the pilot, but I really thought she might think I was too weird, so I didn't go that far. I did make R take my picture. This is me, in the back row of the cabin, knitting a sock.



Who knows, I might be the first person to knit on the Goodyear Blimp!

A Little Bit of Shaking Going On

We went to the Long Beach Aquarium's Member Preview of their Shark Summer Something Or Other Thingy. Peanut danced with a guy in a shark costume, I watched the giant whale hanging from the ceiling swing in the earthquake, and we ate some dinner. Fun stuff.

Also, we went to the beach.



Peanut kept wanting to swim more. "I swim, like a Nemo."



I love these girls.

Brown Ghosts

Today we went to a used bookstore. Peanut saw a pair of nuns going into the bookstore.

She told R, "Daddy! Wook! Bruwn Dhosts!" {Translation= "Daddy! Look! Brown ghosts!"). R struggled to keep from cracking up.

It got better when one of the nuns asked Peanut her name. She answered, and then turned to R and said, "Daddy! Da bruwn dhosts asked a my name! I don't like a da bruwn dhosts! Pick me up!"

So, is it obvious that we're not catholic?

Hand-Knits=Love

I think I might love her. Just a little bit.

BLARGH!

This sweater is killing me. I have ripped back, tinked back (I just learned that phrase from the Knit Picks podcast) and I am basically in the same place I was on Friday. It will be a cute sweater, someday. For Punky probably, if she can stop growing like a mutant.

I just had to stop writing so I could kill a giant spider. I think that I kept seeing it move out of the corner of my eye and then finally I actually saw it. Yowza, that's a big one. Was a big one.

In any case, I think in the next couple of days I will have a little photo update time with the newest knits and I'll add some pics to Ravelry and here. Have I mentioned how much I love Ravelry? 'Cause I really do.

I need some sleeo. Have a super-fantastic day.

I'm Not Tired!

Everyone else is asleep. I'm not tired, so here I am, writing a useless little post here.

Aren't you excited?

I thought you would be.

I just started hearing some of this:


You can watch it by clicking here.

I am, I am sure, quite behind the times and I am sure all of the cool kids already knew about this a long time ago... But I just heard about it on NPR (OK I GET IT I'M A NERD) and I searched it out. Did you know that fancyjane and I were extras on Buffy the Vampire Slayer a hundred years ago? We were vampires. Take that and stuff it, Kevin Bacon. Six degrees? One degree. Oh, yeah.

I Am Clearly Deluded.*

I was hopeful, you see. About the sneezing being related to the pollen count.

Peanut threw up on me twice on Tuesday and sneezed on Punky about a bazillion times. Punky is coughing from the other room and keeping sneeze-crying in a sad little way.

Colds : 1
Me: 0

However, I did finish knitting Punky an adorable pink cashmere hat (note that it is going to be 80 degrees here, I know, I know), so there is that. And I finished knitting a scarf that had been sitting around unfinished forever, too. Woo! Knitting on long phone calls at work! I am also still enjoying all the reading I get to do on breaks/lunches. So cool. I miss the girls with every fiber of my being, but there is something to say about a lunch break. Moms everywhere should get one- imagine, an hour to yourself. I know, I know.

Happy mother's day, if applicable.

*Please note that I am so tired right now that the original name of this post was going to be "I'm Am Clearly Deluded." Yes, I know.

Ok, I think it's getting quiet....

The kids may or may not be getting sick. We might have allergies. I don't know. Lots of crying, lots of "MOMMY" emanating from their room. Yeah.

In any case, I have been meaning to post here since I got back to work, but I officially have NO TIME TO MYSELF ANYMORE. Yes, that needs to be in caps. Hence, the 11:01 PM post. The SHORT 11:01 PM post.

I actually have things to write about, too. My co-worker finished reading "Moby Dick" this week. The guy who hadn't read a novel since college. I am very proud of him, and am endeavoring to get him to read "Bartleby the Scrivner" next in his Melville adventure. Yay reading!

One of the perks of working again is my hour lunch. I can read for about thirty minutes. It is so cool. I started a novel on Sunday and I am over halfway done. Yay reading!

Also, I am kicking around a story that sprouted from my head on Friday. I was driving home through Santa Ana and it just sort of assaulted me and made me take notes. I wasn't even sure what prompted it. It seems that it is time to write again. My mind has made itself up and I am but its willing hostage. (That phrase makes me think of "Bel Canto").

Here's my tentative title: "The Story of Us, Before You and All of That" or maybe with a semi-colon. I have a lot of passionate feelings about semi-colons. I wrote a couple pages at stop lights. Weird, n'est pas?