Do you remember the graduation shots of #1, the son with a beard and whose hair is longer than mine -- more than halfway down his back? He decided to be shorn before he leaves for Chiapas this week for nine months. (More on that in another post.) He had me cut off his pony tail right above the rubber band so he could donate it to a place that makes wigs for cancer patients. When I chopped, apparently I cut significantly higher on his left side; the haircut was NOT even.
A couple days later he had a local beautician shave the back and sides, leaving the top exactly as I cut it.
Before and after.
Rather startling to me, considering this is the son who has always had minimal interest in his appearance beyond being clean.
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A few weeks ago we got home from the camping vacation and the boys were home for less than 24 hours before leaving for Bonaroo. If you are over the age of something-or-other, that name probably means nothing to you, which is exactly what it meant to me when #1 asked if he could borrow one of the cars to drive there with his college roommate. Turns out that it is a four-day, mostly outdoor rock concert/festival, held annually near Manchester, Tennessee and gets some amazing bands. This year's headliners were Tool and [reunited just for this special event] The Police. Other names that I recognized in the l-o-n-g line-up were Widespread Panic, the White Stripes, Ben Harper, Flaming Lips, Ornette Coleman, Bob Weir (from Jefferson Airplane and, I think, Jefferson Starship), Hot Tuna (whose main members are JormaKaukonen and Jack Casady, ditto), Aesop Rock, and David Bromberg. We bought #2's trip as his high school graduation present and bribed #1 to take him along by paying for part of his ticket as well. Their personalities and temperment are different enough that #1 has been annoyed by #2 since the latter was old enough to talk, so the bribe was necessary. But we also knew that #2 has matured tremendously in the past couple years -- heck, in the past six months! -- and that he is a pleasure to be around these days. We were pretty sure that this trip would be a lot of fun for both and maybe even a bit of a bonding experience. That seems to have been true. Yay.
And #2, the non-camera-shy son, managed to get himself into a couple pictures posted on bands' pages on MySpace. That's him bare-chested in the middle in the left picture, front and center for Aesop Rock. In the right picture he is that tiny highlighted blip in the lower center; the band is Girl Talk.
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We discovered while camping that #2's belt buckle can open beer bottles quite handily.
Good. That buckle is the ugliest thing I've seen in a while. (#2 doesn't drink; he just likes to help.)
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He amuses me to no end.
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Have I bored you to tears yet? Here, let me try again...
What do kitties do when you leave them alone in the house, albeit with plenty of food and water, for two weeks?
"Mmmm, plastic and toilet paper, our favorites!"
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Contrary to popular report, I have been knitting.
This is a bunch of warshcloths and baby bibs without their ends woven in nor their buttons sewn on. I'm aiming to make one a day -- or realistically, two every three days -- until the county fair the last weekend in July. We'll sell them at the Friends of the Polk County Libraries booth, along with felted mitten kits, felted mittens, purses made from felted sweaters, and a few other things. Those things are better sellers than books and much easier to transport. As usual I'm having a ball being quasi-creative, i.e., using ideas I've seen on others' blogs. I'll try to post better pictures when they are all done. Gee, maybe the cats want to pose...
I used up the last of the yarn from the sherbet sweater for Dulaan. This will go into some charity package, don't know which yet.
Imagine the ends woven in (again) and the I-cord topknot tied in an overhand knot. Then imagine it on a baby. Then say, Awww....
