lolajl: October 2004 Archives

Hey . . . Laura, care to help me out here? I've got an assignment from the Russian teacher - we have to pick out a short story (yes, in English!) from the following authors - Chekov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Lermontov, Pushkin, Dostoevsky. I'm leaning toward Pushkin. Suggestions, Laura, and anbody else?

Well, I've been slacking off on knitting again because I've been juggling too many balls again. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself so my twin would do all the boring stuff, like cleaning the house, cutting onions, and so forth.

So far, my orchids are hanging on. Last weekend Bruce and I were at Home Depot to buy mulch for the garden, and we checked out the houseplants section. We were surprised to find orchids there, and even more surprised to find Sharry Barry at a price that was cheaper than the one we got at the Orchid Show. Of course, we bought it. Now mother wants to have one of these at her home.

We also stopped by Yarns International so I could get my yarn store fix and to pick up Simply Shetland. I discovered that Peri Klass has put together a collection of her essays on knitting and bought it as well. The title is Two Sweaters for Father, I think. It's nice to have her best essays in one collection, even if you've read some of these over and over again.

What do flowers and children have in common? Well, beauty is one thing. And another thing is that flowers and children both hold your attention such that you're almost hypnotized.

During the Columbus holiday weekend, Bruce and I took mother to the orchid show at National Arboreteum. It was much better than last year, with more of a variety of orchids on display. And you could smell the fragrance in the showroom. Mother had made a vow not to buy any orchids (and now she's regretting it), but being a newcomer to growing orchids, I decided to buy a couple.

Here's the first one, which is Onc. Sharry Baby from Brennans Orchids:

And here's another view of the orchid:

This orchid has small flowers and a nice fragrance, very much like cinnamon. I was told that it blooms once a year. There's a fat pod that should hopefully produce flowers next year, and another pod that is growing. If I can keep it alive, I'll get to enjoy the flowers again next year.

And here's the other one, which is Cycnodes Wine Delight 'Jem':

It doesn't have any fragrance that I can detect, but it's pretty nonetheless. I plan to get more orchids in the future.

Yesterday Bruce and I went to Holy Cross Orthodox Church for the baptism of our friend's baby Olivia. She was very good during the ceremony, hardly ever cried when she was dipped three times into the baptismal font. Here she is in her mom's arm at the party:

She has lots of hair, and I think she is going to have long, curly hair like her mom.

To my surprise, my buddy Caroline Nina was there with her son Alex. He was happy to see me too, and we had lots of fun playing and chasing after the plastic cup. He's a smart boy - he is beginning to crawl and doesn't give up when the cup is out of reach, he just drags himself over to it. Here's Alex getting right into my camera:

Hmm . . . I wonder if I can play matchmaker when Alex and Lia are of age???

Meanwhile, I made good progress on the socks. I am now turning the heels, and soon I'll start to pick up the stitches for the gusset. When I'm further along, I will be taking a picture of these.

Just testing . . .

I'm updating the templates and style sheets to be more in line with the new format that MovableType has installed in MT 3x. So this may look weird for the moment.

Since my company is a gov't contractor and we follow the federal holiday schedule, that means we get this day off. Whee! I was just itching to get out of work Friday afternoon. Hubby and Mother went to the Orchid show at the National Arboreteum and we had a good time there. I bought two orchids - one that smells of cinnamon and the other one has nice bell shape. I'll have to take a photo and get the names for y'all later today.

And today I'm planning to drop in on my fav shop - Yarns International to see what's up there. Maybe even pick up a few books and fondle some yarn. I think I've finally broken my knitting slump - I've gotten back to the two socks on circ project and just one more inch to go before I start shaping the heel. When these socks are done, I'll promptly cast on another pair, especially since these are two different colors. But the side benefit is that I'll get two pairs finished off. One has to look on the positive side.

Russian is progressing very nicely, despite the mishap Hubby had with the tape recorder that resulted in most of the dialog we're supposed to practice being not recorded. Arrggghhh!!! On the plus side, I believe I've got most of the dialog memorized. I'm quite surprised, since memorization is my achilles heel when it comes to learning languages. Here's a few words for y'all (hope the cyrillic letters show up as readable on your page - tell me if these aren't):

Доброе утро - Good morning.

Здрасвуйте - Hello.

Очень приятно - Pleased to meet you.

or not. Still have yet to get back to the sleeve so I can finish it once and for all. I know I can complete it in 3 or 4 days, so what's holding me back??? Sheer inertia.

Hint for you . . . if you have an older person teaching the class, you better make sure you do your homework or you'll get a good dressing down.