Hello, Noah? May I please order....

...an ARK? It doesn't have to be too big, there's only me and Mr Dearling and two kitties. And 9,500 books. Oh - couple bins o' yarn. A doll or two (5). The odd teddy bear (50+). In the meantime, hip boots, brollies and my kagul will have to do.

Believe it or not, this is my lovely little street, only it looks like a tributary of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER! You've probably read about the bad weather in the Midwest, and I cannot really complain because my little pre-fab house is snug. We have a trickle in the basement, but it's never more than that. (Also, my books are upstairs and my yarn is in rubber bins.) But I have state-mates who aren't faring so well, and there is a lot trouble in various towns in Wisconsin because of serious damage from straight-line winds, tornados and incredible flash-flooding.

Furthermore, the foliage around here is going wild; my sweet little hollyhocks are ginormous, and at the moment are towering over Lucy, my precious little lilac tree. It's still really wet out, but when it dries some ( IF it dries some) I'll take some pictures of it. It is very dramatic.

Friday I went to Late-Night Knit and had a very nice time! It was a fairly small group (well, I missed seeing Mrs SABLE and Chocolate Sheep and also Kitty Mommy but the other regulars were there, and I got a chance to visit with Molly Bee so at least we two represented the Hog-and-Bloggers). May I add, seeing Molly Bee cheers one; she has one of those merry personalities. Also, I always do enjoy hanging out with my Lovely Daughter, who showed me her very clever sock cuff that I'm going to have to try. She has learned how to Kitchener (I hate using words like verbs that way) to seam using the Kitchener stitch, so when I get to the toe of the sock I have on the needles I'll employ my best Jewish-Mother-Guilt-Trip to have her show me how to do that. It'll have to be the best one, she's largely impervious after all this time. Oy.

When I went to get the yarn for the shawl requested by one of my young colleagues at the Museum I found some self-striping cotton Sugar-and-Cream!

So nothing for it, I bought some and started a dishcloth out of it to see how it would look. I also took back out a scarf which had been in time-out, not because it was naughty or troublesome, but really just because something (probably a toque or two) had gotten in the way, and the scarf is "undedicated" -- and of course my beautiful sock.

Incidentally (neener neener Lovely Daughter, I can SO use that word now and then, so there!) the Sow's Ear has expanded their eating fare somewhat. They've always had a variety of delightful beverages of the stimulating and refreshing sort (coffees, teas, Italian sodas) and perfectly lovely pastries. Now they have salads and quiche and stuff. I had a Greek salad that was loaded with olives and feta and hummus and BOY is it yumm-o.
I have to admit, I've been a little slack on knitting of late, and there's nothing like a Late-Night Knit among one's peeps to inspire a new passion for the needles!

I am proud to say, I finished the scarf (that's that delicious Paton SWS stuff, which I love, and the Yarn Harlot's one-row pattern, which I love) AND the dishcloth, which - when done in the usual seed-stitch pattern, makes plain old ordinary stripes out of the self-STRIPING cotton yarn. You see here also the shawl for my colleague. It's Lion Brand "Homespun", a lovely, bumpy, 100% acrylic (I KNOW!!) which I use for the plain granny shawls all the time. They're warm, soft, washable and attractive and I've made bunches of them. So has Lovely Daughter - hers are often larger than mine. I usually use three skeins; she sometimes uses four. I all but started a fashion trend when I was working, and now that I've been wearing them to the Museum I have a new request. NOTE: think on it: shawls are easy to throw over one's shoulders, keep off a light chill and can be set aside easily too. Why'd they ever go OUT of fashion, I ask you? WHY?

{ahem} OK, the color I am using for this shawl is a lovely neutral sort of oatmeal-oid color, called "Rococo". I repeat, "Rococo". Being slightly confused, I looked up the meaning of that word on Ask.com because I wasn't sure how a neutral oatmeal-oid color fit what I THOUGHT it meant. Here's what they say it means:

A style of art, especially architecture and decorative art, that originated in France in the early 18th century and is marked by elaborate ornamentation, as with a profusion of scrolls, foliage, and animal forms.

"Elaborate ornamentation"??? Wellll....ok. Whatevs. It is a nice color, and it's fun to be cranking along on a good old plain shawl again. I particularly enjoyed working on it yesterday (Sunday) because I put my newly-obtained "Firefly" discs into Daisy and sat and laughed and cried and ogled and knitted and spent the WHOLE DAY thus occupied. Perhaps, at my Advanced Age, I ought not be so cavalier about my remaining days, but my goodness I had a good time. (Molly Bee? Yep - you can have Capt. Mel, I am all over the Shepherd, or ... you know, would be , you know what I mean.)

NOTE: I am mentally writing in a new character: a short grandmotherly sort who oversees the kitchen, spends time with River (that girl needs to KNIT!), does the laundry, reads out loud to Kaylee while she works, makes chicken soup for the Shepherd...you get the picture. Wonder if they'd do just one more episode??

On Sunday, we decided to take in the Pirate Festival event in Port Washington, about two hours' drive from here, and as we have friends who love doing that sort of thing we thought we'd check it out. ('Sides, our last initial is "Aaaaaarrrgh".)

There was a variety of good entertainment on stages along the waterfront; this was "The Jolly Rogers", (what else?) who performed a rollicking set of jovial piratical tunes. There were exhibits of fencing and belly-dancing, weapons demos and battles> We did notice several guys who must've been related in some way to Cap'n Jack Sparrow. Lots of braids and beads and gewgaws, and kohl-rimmed eyes. (You're safe, Johnny, in spite of best efforts you're not going to be upstaged any time soon!) There were tents with folks selling all manner of piratical goods, from wooden scimitars (seen in the hands of some short-but-fierce brigands) to an array of really good books on buccaneers and pirates and sailing vessels and lore and so on.

There was some handsome statuary, which I much admired:
I took careful notice of these guys, on account of - I think next year we might try to "dress" and spend the whole weekend. Admittedly, I was feeling sort of glad we weren't camping right then, as it was a tad chilly and the weather looked threatening . This area WAS hit later in the evening by the same wind/rain/flood/storm effect that hit the rest of the state, but we had left by then. But it does look like the sort of thing we'd enjoy just for fun.

Lest you think "But gee, Dale-Harriet, do you really think knitting fits into this whole array of hooliganism?", I can tell you that I had a Very Dramatic Moment involving that very pursuit!

Mr Dearling wanted to take the camera out and get a few shots of Lake Michigan and various activity around the quay, so I found a comfortable bench and settled in for a restorative knit. Little did I know, I came within an INSTANT of being slaughtered, keel-hauled, terrified, captured, robbed and maybe even hugged by a fierce, bloodthirsty, terrifying, cold-blooded Killer Buccaneer who was silently creeping up behind of me! Mon Dieu, what a fate was narrowly escaped, by two very fortunate events: his mommy came looking for him, and Mr Dearling came back!

One activity that would be worth the price of admission was a cruise on the four-masted schooner "Windy", offered a few times each day. There were regular cruises, lovely enough - and also a "Fireworks Cruise" (probably cancelled Sunday) and an "Invasion Cruise", which sounds like the most fun of all. By the way, if you'd like to see the website for this - you know, for future reference for next year, you'll find it here: Port Pirate Festival . I imagine they'll put in for good weather earlier next year, to reserve something better. We left by about 4:30, got as far as Mukwonego and I sobbed, begged, whimpered requested that we pull into the parking lot of a drug store to wait out the downpour. We found a very nice restaurant when it let up some, and I had a favorite of mine that you don't see on menus very often: Chicken Kiev! It's a lovely chicken breast prepared in such a way that when you carefully slice into it, melted herb butter POURS out! For some reason, it was served on a plate with gravy on it. Overkill. On the other hand, it was tasty and lovely and by the time we were done, it was sort of a normal crummy-weather-day rather than a wretched, terrifying, life-threatening destructive-weather day.

As for today, (Monday) - I've spent a quiet day reading, knitting and blogging, and watching very dramatic news footage of houses breaking in half and floating away down a river that didn't exist before this morning....Lake Delton, a popular resort lake near the Wisconsin Dells, decided to leave its accustomed bed and drain itself dramatically into the Wisconsin River and eventually join the Mississippi! Heck of a thing!

This is my lovely little Lilac Bush - in the background! Before it, stand the GIGANTIC Hollyhocks which I expect will be prying off the front door and coming in to watch television any day now - I hope we don't have too much more rain tonight!