One last laugh

This stuffed dog has been part of our lives for about a year. Eastbourne Grandma "won" it from a charity tombola. First she tried to fob it off on cousin G, but he had the good taste to act scared of the giant beast. Not our Foxy. He squeeled with delight and rode it like a bucking bronco. Ergo, we got stuck with the thing. Imagine my delight when stuffing started coming out of its back. This was the dogs finest moment, IMO:

It's True

I am a Knitting Champion. In the 17 days of the Winter Olympics, I challenged myself to complete a Baby Bubbles cardigan, and my god, I did it. It is the trickiest knit I have ever done, and IMHO, the most gorgeous:

If only I found writing academic papers/grants this satisfying...

Mesmorized

Foxy is most definitely going to love video games, esp those involving driving.

Fort!

We're away for a weekend at Sandy Balls! It's all very English, pissing down with rain, but plenty of wholesome family fun. Foxy is in heaven, M is 5 and entertaining him in a fort with fuzzy felt:



As these are friends who take parenting seriously, I'm busy pretending that it's normal not to have the telly on at 9 on a Saturday morning.

Just Busy....

I have had a few enquiries along the lines of, "What happened to the blog?" I've just been busy, nothing sinister. But thanks for the urges to get my arse back into gear!

One of the things I have been doing is this:

(no, I don't know why it is sideways, but if I start trying to fix it, this post will never go out!)

This is a baby cardigan for friends of ours who had a baby boy in Dec. I am now also finished with 1.5 of the sleeves. I'm knitting furiously because this is my Olympic knitting project, so my deadline is Sunday. Wish me luck with the button-band ;-/.

As most of you are not interested in my knitting, but are interested in Foxy, here he is:

E-mail from a Psychology PhD student

As some of you may know, I'm spending this weekend blindfolded

as part of my research.

Firstly, it's been suggested that I use my blindfolding to raise money

for a charity. I've chosen the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and

would love it if you could find a few spare pennies to contribute.

Donating is easiest through my JustGiving site:

http://www.justgiving.com/toms-blindfolding

I'm also trying to arrange for human "guide dogs" to supervise my

adventures over the weekend. I'm trying to maintain my usual routine

where possible, so having helpers is going to be essential. If you can

spare an hour on Monday or Friday I'd be very much obliged. (My other

half has nobly volunteered for Saturday and Sunday.) Let me know and

I'll put you on the sheet.

And I get paid to be here -- happiness.

Make do & eat

I found it immensely satisfying eating the entire contents of fridge and freezer during the Big Snow of 2010. This has spurred me on to the cupboards. This week my challenge is a bag of semolina. Luckily the boy seems to like it as a pudding. Tonight we are trying Roman Gnocchi which according to Delia is made with said ingredient. I love a recipe that concludes with, "You might think this seems too much butter, but when serving it should be soaked in melted butter. Not for slimmers or the health-conscious, but wonderful."