The Visitor

A few nights ago Hudson discovered an opossum in the yard. It took some persuading, but I was able to get him into the house and away from the opossum.

Yesterday morning when I let the dogs out for their pre-breakfast toilet, the opossum was playing opossum. Hudson was extremely interested. Since he hadn't eaten yet I was able to persuade him to come inside. When I looked out the window after breakfast, the opossum was digging around in the leaves. I guess he didn't get the memo about not being active during daylight.

The opossum returned last night. I let Chloe out for an evening toilet. When she didn't come right back to the porch, I knew she had encountered the opossum. It was much easier to get her to come back in than Hudson in the morning. Once she was inside, I went out, took a photo and told the opossum that he needed to find a new yard to frequent; it isn't safe for him here. I don't have much hope that he understood.

Election Night

Carl and I went to Grant Park to share in the excitement of the night. What did I make? Tears of joy!

The media was out in force. I wish I had taken a photo of the Belgian photojournalist we talked to after it was clear that the race had been won. Look for photos of us in Le Monde.

My view for the first part of the evening was mostly butts. Once CNN started to announce projections sitting on the ground was no longer an option.

Tears of joy. PA had just been called. The election hadn't been called, but we knew it was over.

We were just close enough to get the occasional glimpse of Obama and Biden. There was a moment when Obama turned in our direction and waved. Everyone's hand immediately shot up in the air and we all waved back. This was one of the few times I had a very clear view of him. It was amazing how connected I felt to both Obama and the rest of the crowd in that moment. Mostly our view was of people holding up their cameras; I'm sure there are a lot of people who now have photos of other people taking photos.

The end of the evening and we're both grinning fools. It was a long evening, but it was good to be in Grant Park to share this moment.

Row of dishes. No wonder people had trouble getting a signal in the park.

Walking down Michigan Ave at midnight.

Hudson thinks he can knit.

Last night he woke me up at 1:48 to go out. When we came back inside, he decided that he was going to sleep downstairs with Huey.

This morning when Chloe woke me up to feed her, Huey and Hudson ran upstairs to make sure I didn’t tell her to go back to sleep. Imagine three greyhounds running back and forth, back and forth, poking their wet nosed in your face, your side, anything that is left exposed.

As I made my way down the stairs I found a ball of yarn in the middle of the stairwell, exactly where I did not leave it. I know I don’t knitting in my sleep! My first thought was, “there goes another pair of needles!” I followed the strand back to my desk where the knitting project lay with the needles intact. He’s been doing so good with pencils etc. on the desk that let my guard down and made the mistake of leaving a knitting project unattended.

Now, Chloe loves wool. When she gets a ball of yarn she eats the thing. And we won’t even talk about how much she loves a greasy sheep fleece. Hudson on the other hand, pulls the yarn out of the ball or skein and creates knots. I swear that he is trying to knit. During my lunch break he sat on the day bed with me and watched intently as I knit. When I made the mistake of putting the project down he lunged for it. Fortunately a sharp “drop it” worked and the project was retrieved quickly.

Day of the Dead Nano Case

For my friend KB's birthday I made a case for her iPod nano. She really likes Day of the Dead imagery so I put a skull on the cover. I cut a skull from a sheet of ivory colored felted wool and embroidered the design using size 12 pearl cotton.


Then I whip stitched the skull onto a rectangle of dark gray felt and attached the pieces with an Eskimo join. It may be hard to see in the photos, the running stitch is orange and the lacing is pink. The cover is secured with two snaps.


The pocket has cut outs for the screen, wheel, and headphone jack. (I don't have a nano so I made a cardboard mock-up. My dog Hudson spent three seconds chewing on the model which caused the cardboard to warp a little.)

(bag strap attached)

(wrist strap)

There are two straps on the back: a wrist strap and a bag strap.