A Tisket a Tasket

My friend Karin made me a basket.

Isn't it cute? Isn't she clever?

Karin is a weaver of baskets and cloth as well as a spinner of yarn. She went to nursing school with my sister and years ago all 3 of us briefly played on an indoor soccer team together. Anyway, I saw Karin at my first spinning guild meeting, and thought she looked familiar. It took us a while to make the connection, but we eventually did. As it turns out, in addition to being a fiber geek AND a soccer nut, she is also a bike racing fan who knows EXACTLY who I'm talking about when I say I got some killer shot of George Hincapie at the Tour of Missouri.

And, as it turns out I do have some shots of George.


George, as you undoubtedly know, is the current Pro US Road Race National Champion and who, by the way, helped shepard one Lance Armstrong around France on ALL SEVEN of Lance's tour wins.

AND

look here: a photo of Dave Zabriske, known to his friends as DZ Nutz, who happens to be the Pro US Time Trial National Champion AND the winner of the 2009 Tour of Missouri.

I could go on-and-on . . .

Meeting a DEADLY spinner

Perhaps you recall my post a year ago about another spinnerly gal.

Or perhaps you have a life to live and memorizing the contents of my blog by topic and date don’t even make the top 3704 of your to-do list. Fine, I can live with that. But now that you’ve been reminded, maybe you do remember a certain spider featured on the 9-13-2008 post? NO?? Harummmmph.

Anyway here is a year later and life brought me another spider. Yesterday I saw a web with two spider eggs outside my back door where my dogs go in-&-out-&-in-&-out-& . . . I was also going in-and-out quite a bit, as I was smoking some meat. On one trip I noticed the mama spider tending to the eggs, and looked closer . . . OMG!!!

A BLACK WIDOW

Of course I grabbed my camera and attached a macro filter so I could get a better shot. It is best to use a tripod when using a macro filter because the focus is real finicky. But, there was no getting a tripod that close to the ground.

I snapped a few shots and went inside to find some agent to chemically dispose of the spider, can’t (or won’t) use pesticides because of the bees. I thought 409 would do it and sprayed mama and the eggs. Mama ran off to her hole and I thought she was dead but a few minutes later she was back checking on the eggs. So, I squirted mama and eggs with Dawn dishwashing detergent. She bolted again and I removed the eggs and web to the trash with a stick, a looong stick. About a half hour later . . . she’s BAAAAACK. I snapped a few more photos.

And then, I doused her again with a blob of Dawn. This time she was really curled up, and I supposed she was dead. A few hours later I found her in the middle of the patio on her back, apparently dead.

Whereupon Kelly was summoned. He picked her up (with a tissue) and flushed her. I’m pretty sure she’s truly dead, but I think everyone should watch their backs anyway, if you know what I mean.

09-09-09 or Happy Birthday Kelly

Yes, indeed. 09-09-09 is a special day

Kelly's birthday, actually. And I can't think of a better person to celebrate than the fella who has pretty cheerfully put up with my enthusiasms for years and has provided loads of funny sleepwalking stories.

We had a lovely lunch today at Gilcrease Museum and then dinner at my parents' house. I took a really crappy photo of Kelly at lunch and since it's his birthday, I'm honoring him by not posting it.

The real celebration was the purchase of the smoker.






Of course using the smoker will probably mean that we both have fewer birthdays, oh well.