and about 100 beers later.....

.....the power was back on. Mother nature really let loose yesterday with the weirdest weather I'd ever seen: Clear blue sunny skies, Blustery winds, and 75 mph gusts-thanks to the reminants of "Ike". Also, Thanks to Carolyn for baiting me to post this week.....and I should point out my Rudeness publically for not responding to her nice e-mail..."I'm sorry". so who wants pics? I got em' this week! Fo's, yarn fresh out the dyepot, tree carnage, puppy pics, all of it! Here goes.....

Matilda is growing up nicely, and she's sitting on command, knows "down" and "come", waits patiently for her supper, and is never on a leash outside of the yard....and man, she loves her outside time! (note all of the sticks in the yard, but my maple survived the tree holicost) It's been a few weeks since theres been an acicdent too, so I am slowly considering refinishing the wood floors sooner than later. every now and again, I get a complete passive protest from her about coming back inside, which today looked like this:

Normally, I have to walk across the yard and invite her back in, but today I just rubbed her little belly, and walked away. by the time I hit the screen porch door, she was right at my side. That's my girl. So, on to the carnage.....The tree below I think twisted all the way around on the way down. there are dozens down around westgate park, and I was really impressed at all the city clean up trucks in the park sawing brush off the paved paths and fencing off all the dangerous trees. about 10 trucks in all, just for my park...kudos to them.

I have the greatest neighbors, and life here in "the hood" (it's not really) is a constant blast, so in true neighborly fasion, we threw a block party with the power out! (micah would have been proud) 7 dogs, 3 kids, 20 adults all throwing down in my backyard in the dark. We fired up the barbecue, filled up my old galvanized pail with ice and 100 beers, and got to work! hell, 10 of us even went for a walk through the park about 1 am, climbing the downed trees and whooping like silverback gorillas.....(a lot of beer down then...)

The kids and I went out for a picture cruise today (yeah, the kustom kruiser is the much fun to ride) and shot most of these.

Last Night, when the winds were blowing 40-50 Mph, and gusting to 75mph, this porta potty was cruising across the soccer fields and since I had a truck bed full of neighbors going for a ride to see all the damage we hopped on top and surfed across the park. I wish I had the camera then. We even flew and broke 2 kites. apparently they were not up to the challenge. Trees started going down about 2 pm, and the power was gone by 3 pm.....back on at 5:30 this morning......

after an awesome meal of Brats, burgers, corn and salmon burgers for the vegans(all done on the grill) someone came up with a radio and an 3" mini tv and we all huddled around the steelers/browns game. I couldn't tell you who won, But I got hozed along with many others and had an awesome time. the pic below is a good depiction of what the whole neighborhood looks like, just a wreck!

Off the needles came the first of 2 ribbed watch caps I'm knittin' for my 2 buddies as early x-mas gifts. they are deer hunting maniacs and both have been begging for them this year for the anual hat gift I give them. Hand dyed by me using pro chem dyes and knit picks bare merino worsted superwash.

Next up is cast on hat#2 out of some yarn I dyed up in a 3 color stripe, but since it's Kramer Judy DK superwash merino, and the stripes are looking really thin, I think It may be socks instead, but I'll see in another few rows...There isn't much else to report from here, and I hope I've entertained you all a bit for the day. Last nights blow out was so much fun, and thank god most of the jobsites were without power, and schools were closed city wide, or I'td been a loooong day for me for certain. Be productive citizens tomorrow, Millions of people on goverment assistance are depending on YOU!!!

-matty