It’s sitting on the porch, relaxing. Tonight we turned the tv off (gasp!) and enjoyed the cool evening. CJ was on patrol in the yard. I had my knitting. Bill had the laptop. He would have been reading but he was dong some research for me. It was a nice way to end the day.

I’ve been working on my circular shawl. I am anxious to finish it. I casted on a new pair of socks on Sunday. I was looking for a small project to break up the monotony of the circular shawl but then decided if I just focused on the one project, I would get it done faster. So the socks have been set aside but I am looking forward to picking it up. I’m trying a new pattern - stockinette stitch with picot edging courtesy of the tutorial on Claudia’s blog which was recommended by Carole Knits.

I confess to being a little stressed by my knitting. I’ve been going through my stash yarn trying to match yarn with projects and figuring out what I’m going to start next. And while I’m doing it I’m updating my stuff on Ravelry. But I’m overwhelmed by the amount of yarn I have. Maybe there’s a couple of skeins I can get rid of, but not many. And there’s so many interesting patterns. Just too little time.

Yesterday I passed my written driving test and am now a licensed CA driver. That was a pain. Not hard, but it did cause me some anxiety. I’m very happy to have that behind me. I’ve also found some time to cut fabric and start sewing a new shirt. And my other big project is cleaning and polishing a brass bowl I bought at a flea market for $3. It was so dirty and tarnished and had green spots on it. But I saw potential. It is 50 times better but still needs some TLC. It’s fun bringing something back to life. AND, I am reading a book on the Vietnam War.

So how are you spending your summer days and nights?

I am finally recovered from the plumbers who were working on the house last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The hot water heater broke around Memorial Day and when the plumbers were here, they discovered that all the incoming water pipes needed to be replaced. It was crazy. We were originally told the job would spill into a second day. Then after the first day, we were told it would take another day and a half, which ended up being three full days. There were two plumbers, two apprentice plumbers and a gentleman watching all their equipment which was spread across our garage and driveway. It was loud, not as dirty and you would expect, and only a moderate inconvenience. There’s still some patching and painting work that needs to be done so we’ll see when that happens.

Even though I wasn’t actually doing any plumbing work, it took a lot out of me. I’ve been working on my Chevron Love mittens. I have been having some gauge issues and it’s taken me a bit to get the measurements just right, but I think I’m almost there. The mitten kits provide a very generous amount of yarn. So far I’ve knit 2 practice mittens and one actual mitten and am on the matching mitten so that’s 4 mittens. They are fun to work on and I’m hoping to finish my last mitten tomorrow.

Yesterday I rearranged the furniture in the living room. Bill was a little surprised when he came home but he likes it. We’re going to live with it for a bit and see how it goes. The problem I am having with the living room is that it is a living room, tv room, and a dining room. Truly my biggest problem is the dining room table. I confess that we normally don’t eat dinner at the table, but I have a table and I like the option of being able to eat there if we want to. So now it’s in the far corner of the living room by the windows and sliding glass door. Bill says it’s almost like eating outside. As I said, we’re going to live with it and see how it feels.

Today, we walked to the farmers market in downtown Campbell. I didn’t know what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was three blocks long. One block was crafty/artsy type stuff, one was baked goods and prepared food stands, and the third block was fruits, veggies and flowers. We bought sweet corn, green beans, two types of peaches, plums, potatoes, an orchid plant, orchid stems, a loaf of cinnamon bread, and a bear claw. For me, the highlight was the orchid stems. I used to buy them (albeit a different variety) at the Amish Market for $3 a stem. Five stems would last me 3 - 4 weeks. The orchid stems I bought ( which are hanging out of Bill’s backpack) are huge and cost me $5. Total. The largest bloom measures 5 inches across. They are absolutely gorgeous. It will be interesting to see how long they last.

We walked home and Bill cut some 2×4s for me to help organize my books and our entertainment closet. We are big readers and while we’ve really cut down our collection, we still have a lot of books. I want to do two tiers of paperbacks to maximize space and I’m using 2×4s to raise the back tier of books so you can still read the name and title. I want to do a similar thing in the entertainment closet with our DVDs. We’ll see how it look and works.

Bill just finished up his yard work. We are lucky enough to have people come every two weeks to mow the lawn, trim the bushes, etc. but we still have poop patrol and compost turning. We also have to pick up the fruit that’s fallen off the trees because I don’t want bugs. We discovered that neighbor’s tree which hangs over our fence is a fruit tree and we are curious to see what kind of fruit it will produce. It looks like it might be nectarines.

It’s early in the afternoon and the chores are complete. I think it is time to sit out on the porch and relax with a book. I’m looking forward to dinner. Tritip on the grill with some baked potatoes and green beans. Now if only we could get some decent wine around here…

These are just so freakin’ cute. I bought the kit from Julia Vesper at knitterlythings and I am really having fun with it. This is my first real foray into stranded knitting. At least I think it is stranded knitting. And I just realized that it’s my first pair of mittens. A pair of firsts! Ha ha ha… Nevermind.

Anyhoo, the pattern is easy to understand, even for this first-timer. The yarn is fabulous and it’s so much fun to work with these bright colors. (This is the brilliantly bold kit, in chase you were wondering.) So don’t look at the picture too closely (I just had to photograph the side with the beginning of my round.) But all in all, I’m quite pleased with how this is turning out, ’specially with it being my first time.

I think I’m going to have to keep these. Can someone tell me if I’ll have any use for them out in Northern California? (pleasesayyes pleasesayyes pleasesayyes)

Bill, I can’t believe that we were married nine years ago today. It’s been a fun ride so far and I’m enjoying our new adventure. With you by my side, anything is possible. XOXO M

So how does one celebrate their 9th anniversary? Why with cupcakes and wii skiing. The pups even got to join in the celebration. And of course Sabrina is in the background expressing her outrage at the lack of kitty cupcakes.

I’m looking forward to number 10. I believe someone mentioned something about diamonds…

I’ve never gardened before. Truth be told I am not a fan of creepy-crawlies which tend to be found in the ground and on plants, etc. Bill was offered a deal on earthboxes and wanted to try his hand at tomatoes and peppers. He planted them in mid-March and now we have our first red tomatoes. Yay! These are our cherry tomatoes and if you look hard, you can see a bunch of little green tomatoes just waiting to turn red. We also have regular sized tomatoes that are still green but a decent size. Our pepper plants have really sprouted up in the last two weeks too. We should get a nice yield from those plants. This is all very exciting for a first time gardener.

Moving to California (and having a backyard) has given us an opportunity to try new things. We’ve also been trying to live a greener lifestyle. Our shower seems to take forever to heat up, so we bought a large 5 gallon bucket to collect the water that would otherwise get wasted. We’ve used that water for our garden and the flowers that I’ve planted in the backyard. I also use some of the water on my indoor plants.

We’ve also started to compost. The City of San Jose offered us a deal on a compost bin and offers free composting workshops. So we’ve set it up and have a little bin on the counter where we collect our compost scraps every day. It’s working out pretty well so far. It will be at least another two months before we have useable compost, but our soil can really use the nutrients so it will be worth the wait.

Finally, I think I have a hydrangea bush in my backyard. What do you think? Fingers crossed that’s what it is; I love hydrangeas.

Have you ever watched Magnum PI? Magnum used to say “it’s another day in paradise” in the show. Of course, he lived in Hawaii but I understand the sentiment. The weather here in San Jose has been very comfortable, in the 70s. It’s usually cloudy in the morning but the clouds burn off in a couple of hours. Sometimes you can see the last few clouds trying to roll over the mountains which looks neat. The sun shines, most days there is a breeze and in general, it’s beautiful.

I’ve been trying to spend more time outdoors. Today, Bill and I did a 23 mile bike ride from downtown San Jose to the Bay. It was relatively flat although most of the trail was on gravel. We rode the Guadalupe River Trail which went past our Target, the San Jose airport, and then along a river and by Bill’s temporary apartment. For the most part, the trail was pretty and the view enjoyable. The Bay was a little stinky, but overall it was a pleasant couple of hours. Bill had enough energy to make us most delicious cheeseburgers (my favorite post big-outing meal). We relaxed and read on the porch and then Bill made me some chocolate chippers. Yum!

Saturday we went to the Maker Faire. It was very interesting. I was surprised at how many crafty types there were. I met Janet Perry who’s blog I read. It’s always fun to put a name with a face and she does beautiful needlework. I think my favorite thing was the mobile cupcakes. They would cruise around the fair and were surprisingly agile. The lego set-up was also impressive. There was a film set, a WWII aircraft carrier, and trains. I had a you-know-you’re-in-California-when moment and that moment was seeing a compost bin next to the recycling and trash at the faire.

Today’s little day in paradise involves lots of laundry and picking up around the house.