In which it's life as usual.

What I'm knitting today:

I have been working on the Baby Blanket of Doom, but I am finished with my part of it and ready to pass it on. I didn't have the (very simple) pattern right in my mind, and I ripped it back twice before I got it right. It's a lovely soft blanket for one of the knitters in the Tuesday night group who is pregnant, and everyone is taking a turn to knit a few rows on it.

Why I have sore muscles today:

I went to yoga again on Monday, and we worked so hard! I was aching when we left the Y, so I took some ibuprofen when I got home, and went to bed to get my evening nap, but when I woke up I was so sore and stiff that I took a hot shower before work. I felt good after that, but ooooh! Today I have some sore muscles! It's a fun class, though.

How fast a baby can climb stairs:

Apparently a baby can climb stairs at the speed of light! Maddy was at our house this afternoon for an hour while Rachel and Ash went to the Y to swim laps, and she wandered off to the kitchen, presumably to take cans out of the pantry and put them into one of the other cupboards like she always does.

I was sending an email so I didn't follow her, and Rich was sitting on the floor with her toys, expecting her to come right back, and after a minute he got up to check on her, and then I heard him say, "Where did Maddy go?"

I said, "The kitchen," but he said she wasn't there, so he went to look in the dining room and I started up the stairs to see if she was in our bedroom. I was calling her as I went but she didn't giggle or answer me like she does when I call her, and she wasn't in any of the rooms on the second floor, so I went up the stairs to Rich's office, and there she was, playing with a tube of lotion! She had gone all the way to third floor just that fast!

How much fun is Kim having today:

I am assuming she's having a great time on her island vacation. I hope she doesn't have a mental breakdown without internet access for a couple of days! We should get to see some good photos when she gets back to Taiwan and updates her blog!

In which I have nothing else to report.

Kim actually wrote a blog post about her first day in Taiwan, and she has pictures that she says she will post later, so if you want to follow her adventures you can go here.

What I am knitting today:

I didn't get Kim's top done in time for her to take it with her, but it is almost done. I'll work on it and get it finished and she can have it when she gets back.

I took a bunch of baby sweaters that needed finishing to knitting group this afternoon, and got several of them finished! I'm pretty happy about that. There is only one Baby Surprise Sweater that still needs the shoulders seamed up, and the other sweater that I didn't finish is a Wallaby that I thought was all done, but it turned out that I need to finish knitting the hood! I'll do that when the weather is cooler and Maddy needs a sweater.

I just brought a sock to work on while I read tonight. It's knitted with a soothing blue and green varigated yarn that has aloe in the yarn so it's supposed to be good for your hands while you knit, and good for your feet when you wear them.

What I'm reading today:

I'm reading a paperback mystery that I bought at Walmart yesterday for research and inspiration. I am hoping to write a mystery novel to sell for the Kindle, but I need to get started! I stupidly bought a paperback, though, when I know I don't want to hold it open while I read! I like to read on my Kindle so that I can just prop it on my lap while I knit! What was I thinking? I don't know. I blame it on Maddy - she was distracting me in the store and I was just throwing things into the cart!

What other things I did today:

1. Went for a walk with Laura, her sister Rachel, and their little bulldog Annie. Are all bulldogs named Annie? In my experience, they are.

2. Attended Friday afternoon knitting group where I got urped on by a baby, and also brought home the group baby blanket to work on. We're all knitting a few rows on a baby blanket that will be a gift for a pregnant member of the Tuesday night knitting group.

3. Mailed a piece of paper that Kim needs that she forgot to take with her, and while I was at the P.O. I asked what it would cost to mail a five-pound package to Taiwan. The answer was 45 dollars, so I think that if Kim needs anything else, she can buy it there!

4. Talked to Kim on the webcam. She says the humidity is unbelievable! It takes forever for her hair to dry after a shower, and if she naps, she wakes up covered in sweat. Apparently Taiwan is hotter than Hell or Arizona. She held her Coke bottle up to the camera so that I could see that the label is in Chinese!

In which the dog thinks I am intruding.

I talked to Kim on MSN Messenger this afternoon. It was 4:30 a.m. in Taiwan. She was eating a bowl of ramen soup, and was wide awake. She said she had been traveling for 30 hours altogether, and had been on two planes, a bus and a train. It was quite the adventure for her.

When she got to Taipei, Taiwan, she had to get her bags from the baggage claim, then go to a machine to exchange some money so she could go to another machine to buy a phone card. She used the phone card to call her contact person to meet her at the train station.

Then she found the bus to take her to the train station. The contact person, who is a friend of the principle of the pre-school, helped her get her ticket to Hualien, and asked a couple of girls who were also boarding the train, to help Kim get off the train at the right stop.

When she arrived in Hualien, the principle met her at the train and took her to the apartment. What a journey!

So Kim is fine and arrived safely. When I talked to her again tonight, she said she had slept for about 3 hours, so that's good.

I had taken the night off on Tuesday so I could be up in the morning to go with Rich to take Kim to the airport. Rich was already asleep when I went upstairs to bed, and Sonny was asleep on the bed, too. Not in his usual place at the foot of the bed, though. Apparently when I am not home, Sonny sleeps on my side of the bed!

I was surprised to see Sonny laying in my place and I gave him a little push and told him to move, and he ignored me, so I gave him a push and told him to move again, and he growled at me! I had to use both hands to shove the dog to the end of the bed!

I read for a little while, and then I got up to brush my teeth. When I came back to bed, guess what dog was laying up in my place again? That's right, and he was very annoyed to be pushed out of it!

So tonight I came upstairs to read in bed and found the dog asleep on my side of the bed again. This time when I told him to move, he growled in a disgusted way, but he got up and went to the end of the bed. He has since rolled over and is laying right up against Rich's leg, as far from me as he can get

.

In which Kim goes on an adventure.

So we got Kim safely off to Taiwan today. We got up early to drove to the airport, and actually parked and walked in with her instead of just pushing her out on the sidewalk in front of the terminal and driving away. It's a good thing we did, too, because it turns out that her big bag was too heavy by about 7 lbs! She would have been charged 200 dollars for the overweight bag!

We helped her cram a few things into the smaller bag, and we took a couple of books and her notebook full of CDS home with us. She was taking the CDs because she hasn't moved all her MP3s to her new netbook, and she wanted her music. Once her bags were repacked, we sent her off to the security line. She reported later that she just went through the big xray thingy and did not get molested patted down by the TSA.

Rich and I had a leisurely drive back home, listening to an audiobook while he drove and I knitted. It was extremely leisurely, because the last few miles of the expressway before Rockford were under construction and the traffic was moving slo-o-owly.

When we got home I picked up everything Kim left strewn around the living room and carried it all up to her room and closed the door. I'm planning to clean that room this summer!

I didn't finish the top I'm knitting for Kim, but it is almost done, and I'm going to get it done this week, just so I can say it is finished! Then I will fold it neatly and save it in her room until she gets home.

When this top is done, I am going to do the finishing work on a few things that have been resting in the knitting basket(s) for a long time. I just want things to be done, so I can start a new project with a clear conscience. I think there are four baby sweaters that need a tiny bit of seaming, and some Civil War mittens for Suzy that need thumbs. That won't take long, and maybe I will take them all to knitting night and finish them there, with people to talk to (and listen to) while I work.

In which the air is too thick to breathe.

Oh my goodness, it is so humid tonight! When I left the house to go to work, you could see the air! It's so humid, the air is hazy! It may be 104 in Phoenix, but the air is so thick you can eat it with a spoon in Northern Illinois tonight, so hah! I...win?

Tonight was the first night of the summer concerts in the park, and we all went because we actually know someone who is playing in the city band this year. Rachel and Ash took Maddy to her first concert in the park, and guess what? She's really too little enjoy it. Rich and Rachel took her to play on some of the park equipment and to ride the carousel, instead.

Laura, Rachel and their mom were there, and various other friends, so it was fun and a nice little outing. When our kids were little, we went every Sunday night and sat on the grass on the hill behind the seats, with all of our friends and their kids, but since our kids have grown up they are no longer interested in rolling down the big hill or picking blackberries while fighting off giant mosquitoes.

Now that we have a reason to attend the concerts, it is fun again, and I hope we'll keep going. It will be something more to add to the list of Things We Can Do for Fun While Kim is Gone.

Kim and Sando are having their last gaming night at our house tonight. I think they are going to ride bikes together on Tuesday, so this is not the last thing they will do together before she leaves, but it's the last gaming night! (Until she gets back in December.)

The top I'm knitting for Kim is moving along and there is an actual possibility that I could finish it before she goes. I'm going to keep working on it!

(Insert cursing here)

I am so sick of spending my life at the cell phone store. I hate them very much right now. I got my replacement phone today, and took it to the store to get my service switched over from the loaner to the new phone. I waited forever in that freak show of a store, texting descriptive messages about the clientelle to Laura to amuse myself, and finally a clerk was free to help me, but something is still not right!

I can make and receive phone calls, but my email, facebook, and Twitter are still not right! I get a message that I don't have a data plan to allow me to access those things! Really? Because I pay a largish amount of money to your company every month to have that data plan, so I think someone has made a mistake somewhere!

I will have to drag back over there tomorrow to get this new problem straightened out, and you know what? I am very tired of this, and I am running out of nice.

I would write more, but I have to get back to my knitting!

Kim is going to Taiwan in a week, and we are ready! She has her passport, a visa, an armful of shots, and today I ordered an electric outlet adapter for her to take. I cannot imagine what else she might need, but whatever it is, she can buy it when she gets there.

I started knitting a very cute top for Kim because I wanted to knit something with the yarn made from recycled blue jeans, and tonight at Knit Night I thought it would be an exciting challenge to make the top in time for Kim to take it with her to Taiwan, which means that I need to finish it by next Wednesday morning! I blame Laura for this madness!

Therefore I will be knitting this top every waking moment for the next week. Good thing Kim has a new video game to play that will amuse me while I knit. She bought the new Harvest Moon game for the Wii yesterday and it is so frantically fun that she played it far into the night last night and all day today. I will be sitting in the living room watching her play and play and play!

In other news, I seem to be DEATH on cell phones and have killed another Blackberry. I will be getting a replacement phone in the mail tomorrow, and in the meantime they gave me a loaner phone to use. I could not be happier, and it was totally worth the two hours I spent waiting in the cell phone store while they dinked around with my phone and waited on many, many other people, to get this loaner. Not like last time when I went to the smaller cell phone store on the other side of town because it is never crowded and I didn't want to wait. They didn't give me a loaner! I was without a phone for three days! I will always choose the crowded busy store - I have learned my lesson.