From One Extreme to the Other

Whew! It's been a while since I've had time to post, but that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on. Au contraire, mon frere (or ma soeur, if you prefer) -- far too much has been going on, and with far too little time to say anything about it.

It sure has been a time of extremes. F'rinstance, Dinah graduated from Auntie Sue's puppy kindergarten this past week. We had a great time. All the puppies performed the exercises we've been working on in class (Dinah's sit-stay is getting better, but she doesn't quite get down-stay yet). At the end, each puppy received a mortarboard, a diploma, and some wonderful treats from Auntie Sue.

The little boy who came to class with Emma, the Golden Retriever, begged his mother, "Please, could we get a picture with Dinah Moe?" His family, the owner of Mia the black German Shepherd (Dinah's favorite classmate), and maybe some of the other folks in the class want to come up to the York County Kennel Club show next month.

Fortunately for us, Auntie Dale showed up and took some terrific photos to capture the moment...



Isn't she pretty? Doesn't she look nice? Most of all, doesn't she look clean?! Contrast that puppy with this one...



Hardly seems like the same dog, does it? Let's just say that Dinah's lessons don't just end the minute she steps out of puppy class every week. She's been taking Dirt Appreciation 101 with her brother Charlie, and evidently she's a star pupil.

Puppy class has gone on hiatus for a couple of weeks, and then we'll start a second session on Monday nights with Auntie Sue at her POC puppy class. Dale and Sampson will be our classmates, which should be fun.

The Mysterious Disappearing Banner

You might be wondering what's happened to my Blogdog banner. First it disappears altogether, and then it gets replaced by plain boring old text.

Welllll... the answer is... I haven't a clue. The file might be corrupted, or something else might be the problem. Anyway, it suddely stopped displaying on my blog a couple of weeks ago, and nothing I've done has brought it back. If all else fails, create a new one...

This Week in Wool

Lisa's online yarn store on Etsy is now a reality -- and what a gorgeous reality it is! Really -- go check it out and fantasize about those amazing colorways -- and adopt a skein(s) if it suits your fancy. The skein of hand-dyed merino fingering-weight yarn in the India colorway has already been spoken for... sorry, knitters.

Dale paid me a compliment I don't actually deserve, but it was sweet of her just the same. We were working at the Maine Coast Runners flyball tourney yesterday, and we were chatting with another member. Dale mentioned that when it came to knitting, I was just a sock-knitting fiend (my paraphrase). I haven't been all that fiendish lately, sorry to say. I've completed one of the socks in that gorgeous, weird, tweedy orange Trekking XXL yarn, and have been knitting the cuff of Sock #2 for the better part of a week (or two?).

I also have a couple of repairs to do on a purple chenille scarf I knitted for one of my college friends out in LA. The yarn is maddening; it keeps unraveling, and I keep having to reknit it. Fortunately, I have another skein of the same yarn. I might have to tie the two skeins together and knit a whole new edge with a very long tail.