Meanwhile, back at the Bat Cave

In the midst of work, the after school activity de jour, household choirs, and household maintenance, we've managed to cram some fun into our hectic life. The fun didn't leave anytime for blogging (at least that's my excuse), nor has it left much time for transferring pictures from the camera. What have we been up to? We made our first trip to the zoo this spring where we encountered a keeper in the wild! Little Clover, thrilled beyond belief at his close encounter, began asking her about her typical work day, the animals she kept, the existence of a junior keeper program at the zoo, and where she went to school. I've never seen a kid as excited at the prospect of cleaning an animal cage as he was when the keeper told him, yes, our zoo has a junior keeper program. This is a dream come true for my future zoo keeper.

We've also found a couple of warm water fishing ponds. Now, we can slip away for a couple of hours when the fishing bug bites instead of holding out for a weekend trip. Little Clover is a natural fisherman. He can coax bass out of water and his joy overflows in the form of laughter and squeals. His enthusiasm is the main catalyst for my love of fishing. This week, we changed roles as he taught me how to handle the small pond, and he is an excellent teacher. He also caught a tadpole and a frog, proving once again he is all boy.

To completely juxtapose the all boy nature experience, the Engineer had a baby shower. She is generously giving me a niece and a chance to knit something utterly girly! Watch for a little more information in a later post, after I download the pictures.

The little pink dress isn't the only thing on my needles. I've made great strides cold sheeping, reducing my stash count this year by 3000 yards. I'm striving to knit two skeins of sock yarn a month and have managed to hit that target since I accepted my Yarn Investment Portofolio was growing too quickly. The latest sock project is yet another pair of socks, knitted in Wollmeise, a very hard to get yarn.

From WIPs

The color is beautiful and the yarn is nice. To be honest though, I don't get the Wollmeise craze. This yarn has gone for more than triple its face value on eBay. I'm happy with the skeins I have, but there are definitely other yarns I love more. They do make great socks and show off the stitch definition of the pattern nicely. For the sake of time, the picture is from my camera phone, which suffices in a pinch, but I must really transfer the pictures from my big camera.