Duck soup

Did you know that ducks sit on their nests for 24-28 days before they eggs hatch.  When I say sit there, I am serious.  Other than the occasional rotation, our mother duck does not leave.  Now, let's think about this for a minute, could you imagine sitting still for 28 days?  That is like the entire month of February, you have to sit still and only occasionally move.  One time a day you can get up and grab a bite to eat.  Ducks are like zen masters, their ability to sit.

It is amazing to me that these animals can do this for a number of reasons.  Not the least of which is the commitment to propagating the species.  Live birth has some advantages, such as not being a sitting duck for folks who might want to eat you.

Eating the duck brings up some questions on my part, anyone have a good duck recipe?  Once the ducklings are born can we eat them?  How about the eggs?  How about the mother?  I had wild duck with a lingon berry sauce when I was in Europe on time.  Duck tends to be a bit dry unless you cook it right.

This duck has proven that ducks are smarter than rabbits, sorry Bugs.  The stupid rabbit had her babies in Wiley's yard, where they were shaken to death by the dog.  At least the duck was smart enough to have her babies in the front, pretty much out of our way.  You really wouldn't know she was there unless you were looking for her.

Ultimately, here is the problem with our friend the duck, it is that next year she will come back.  The return to their nesting places year after year, and then their off-spring will use the same location.  I am not thrilled about the prospect of raising generations of ducks in my yard.  Who said there isn't wild life in the city.  Where is that dang coyote when you need him?

July Goals

I have another trip planned and I am sure there won't be much time for knitting.  But these are the goals, I hope I can get to all of them.

Socks:

• Bella Socks, with Lorna's Laces Hot Pink
• Finish Cookie A March Mystery Sock in Dream in Color

Other Sock-y things:

• Finish the Christmas Stocking for Martha
• 25 squares on my Sock yarn blanket
• Work on Sock yarn scarf... really need to finish this thing 

I hope I can get all of this done.  I want to finish the stuff I started last month.

June Re-cap

I think my goals should have been a June/July type of situation, because I didn't get as much knitting done as I wanted.  Oh well! :)  I sort of feel bad about the fact that I really didn't get that much done, but hey, I am having fun right?  There is always next month.

SKA Patterns:

• Make January Club Socks (done)

• Bella Socks, with Dream in Color -- Didn't even get to start these, but I am also making them in the Lornas not the Dream in Color... oh well!
• Cookie A March Mystery Sock in Lorna's Hot Pink -- I am making these out of the Dream in Color and am about half way through them.  I have a bit done on the 2nd sock.  Pictures to come.

Other Sock-y things:

• Christmas Sock #2 for Martha -- I am about 1/2 way done on this too...
• 25 squares on my Sock yarn blanket I did about 15, oh well... it is still moving along.
• Work on Sock yarn scarf... really need to finish this thing -- Didn't even get this thing out of the project bag, oh well!

Because I don't want to be socked:

• A birthday scarf for a friend of mine, who might read this so, if you are someone who might or might not sock me if I don't make you a gift, then you know what you are getting.
• Finished this and she LOVED it!! Yeah!!  The model is not the recipient.

I also made some dishrags for my aunt!

While we were gone

Some things that happened while we were gone...

We got our first CSA delivery.  It was not quite as much as I would have wanted, but the season is young.  It was fun to see all the nifty goodies.

We now have a duck and her nest in our yard.  Apparently we are the neighborhood nursery.

Homeward bound

Leaving California is always bittersweet for me.  I am always sad to leave the weather and my family.  But, I am also happy to go back to my friends, my husband and my routine... and leave my family.  Mixed bag that family.

Of course leaving Santa Barbara isn't always so easy.  We flew into LAX, so had to make the 3 hour drive to the airport.  Which is fine, my mom is usually happy to drive us there, but it is still an exhausting start to an already long trip.  When we got to the airport, it was not unusually crowded and we made it through the bag check line pretty quickly.  At this point, I would like say, I love that Southwest does not charge for your bags, not only are they usually the least expensive choice they don't make me pay to check my luggage.  LUV that!

Because someone, my husband, tarried so much in deciding about what to do about coming with us, we were unable to get a cheap fare for the return that did not involve stopping.  So we had to stop in Denver.  We didn't have to change planes, we just stopped.  During the change over, the kids got to hang out with the pilot.  So awesome.  Again, did I mention that I LUV SWA?  United wouldn't let you do that!  They even let me take a picture.  Sam about had a heart attack he was so excited!

To say that there was some weather issues in Chicago, was well an understatement.  There were massive storms, tornado warnings and 80 mph winds.  This of course delayed all the air traffic into Chicago.  When we landed we were told that we were going to get in the air as soon as possible, before they changed their minds!  Concerns about air traffic were top of mind.  When we touched down at Midway, it was 15 minutes late.  Pretty good all things considered.

That is when the trip home gets interesting.  Walking to the baggage claim area involved navigating around a marching band, bag pipe players, a bunch of guys with flags and masses of people.  When we finally made it to our carousel, well, we were in no mood.  Then getting to the car required a mile long hike through the airport, back past the aforementioned hoopla.

When everyone is finally loaded in the car, it takes us 30 minutes to exit the garage.  When we finally leave the parking garage, we learn that the highway on ramps are flooded and that the highway is closed.  We have to find an alternative route home.  Have I mentioned that Midway is not in a great neighborhood, it is 1:00 am, all the power is out so it is dark.  We all know how I feel about driving in the city... I was a little apprehensive.

We finally find the next highway, only it is under construction, so we sat in traffic for an hour trying to make it home.  Traffic at 1:30 am on a Wednesday... wtf.  Every single road we needed to drive on was either closed or under water.  When we finally make it home, over 2 hours after we landed, everyone was COOKED.  Needless to say, it was a long trip home.

In the 'hood

Once we hit Santa Barbara the fun didn't end!  We saw alpacas... yeah, only my kids would think that was cool, but they are about the size of a large dog.  Did you know our dog is old?  Do you see where I am going with this...  Aren't they cute?

We also went to the zoo, the sea center, the beach to collect shells and sea glass, the younger kids had some cosmetic surgery performed by my brother.

We saw cool things at the natural history museum, we played in the water.  We saw family, which was probably the highlight of the trip.  I know it is exhausting for my mother, at 80 years, to hang with my wild brood, but they do love to see her!  She lets them have pizza for breakfast and oj all day long.

I still love wine/whine time and it was a great trip.  I can't wait to go back.

Give a Day, Get a Day

In December, Mac announced that Disney was giving away free tickets to Disneyland.  He wanted to get them so we could go when we were in California.  So, on January 1st, we signed up to volunteer with Project Linus.  When we completed our project we got 4 free one day tickets to Disney.  When we arrived in LA, rather than go to my Mom's in Santa Barbara, we hit Disney!

It was great fun, and the kids loved riding on all the cool rides. They even tolerated Small World for their mother.  The classic picture of the weary kids with their souvenirs near the Mickey flowers.  I had to endure the taking of this picture, it seems fitting that they should too!

We got to see Mickey and Minnie and the posed for a few pictures!  The extra kid is my nephew, not an additional child you didn't know about.

We rode the big kid rides like Space Mountain and the Matterhorn, but we also did some of the little kid rides like Alice and Wonderland.  Bob even rode with his favorite girl.

Disney was great, and I would love to go again. I think next time we might stay for 2 days, but the one day pass we got from the Give a Day Get a Day program, was still good!  Everyone was tired and ready to leave at the end of the day.  Of course there was swimming at the hotel to look forward too!