Life's a Stitch

I know, you must think I’m giving my child a complex. It’s just that I’m so used to having girls that when my son does anything that is stereotypically male, I think back to those magic words. Congratulations, it’s a boy!

Background info: for the past 14 years, we have rented out our condo in WA as a vacation rental. After a week at a condo people leave weird things behind. We’ve found underwear, Rolaids on more than one occasion, and a Hustler magazine (all together now, "Eeewwwww"), but this trip revealed the most odd item of all. Why don’t they leave Addi turbo knitting needles? No, the last renters left a .50 cal blowgun. This "survival" item was left in a bedroom. Lord knows what they were doing in there.

Mari and Bry came back home a day ahead of us. We received a panicked phone call that night because Mari saw the bag of bread jiggling on the counter. When she bravely prodded it, out jumped a small mouse who proceeded to the toaster oven for shelter. Mari looked in the toaster window and was nose to nose with said mouse. I understand that it was a scene similar to one seen on cartoons – both with shocked looks, paws and hands in the air. Mouse proceeded to the stove and disappeared into the wall.

When we arrived home form WA, Bryant greeted us proudly, showing off the blow darts he made out of pencil erasers and sewing needles. You know where this is going, don’t you? We are a peaceful, non-violent, non-hunting kind of family, but my son, the boy for whom I was congratulated upon his birth, tonight has two notches in his blow dart gun for the two mice he has "successfully" hunted, his father enthusiastically egging him on. The have even fantasized mounting the heads of their prey as trophies of their success. Congratulations…

I’m thankful for "problems" like these when the world is coping with war and disaster. With no daily TV in our lives, one very visual day of US TV this past week really put things into perspective.

As I’ve said before, when under considerable strain, "someone get me my knitting!" And they did. Here is the start of the sleeve on my Garter Stitch Cardigan.