second grade

oh Greece

As you can imagine, Greece has been much on my mind these past days. It's not like I have a particular in with Greece, you know, like we're that close. So tight Greece and me. BFF. There are thousands who are feeling this particular fear and heartache far more than I. Still, even before the horrible stories and images in the news, I've been thinking about our trip a lot. This was the kick off to our summer, and now summer is coming to a close.

I haven't talked about our trip here nearly as much as I thought I would. Life gets in the way, as I often say, and really this blog rarely does what I expect it to. But oh, it was such a special time. Special for my family, and just for me...a real personal kind of special in so many ways. I wanted to be brave and I was. I navigated metros and menus, and I got a lot of parts of this trip so right. I sunk into that place like slipping into a hot jacuzzi on a chilly New Year's Eve. Relief and exhilaration all at once. The air around me fairly crackled with my connection to the sea, the sky, the food, the people. If someone handed me an airline ticket today, even with the promise of a bumpy, smoky landing, I'd go without question. Neel can get Callum to school tomorrow.

We're coming up on our fourth anniversary in the little gray house. Right after we moved in, Hurricane Isabelle dealt us a glancing and memorable blow. It was alarming and scary to suddenly live in a place that could be taken away in a heartbeat. But that can happen anywhere, I suppose. Later that fall, Santa Ana winds fueled trememdous fires in Southern California, seeping San Diego County, the home we'd just left, in a smoky haze. Every day I checked the news, listening to the internet feed of my old radio station, and heard stories of fires near our old condo, and friends stuck inside as their cars and yards were covered in ash. Between the hurricane that literally bore down upon us and fires swarming around where we used to be, I was far more emotionally affected by those fierce flames. I've never tried to camoflague it; a large part of my heart was left behind in San Diego, so of course I felt the impact of those fires keenly.

I feel the same way when I hear about these fires in Greece. Sorrow and yearning, all wrapped up in the knowlege that Greece is not mine, it never really was. I can love it though. Today I'll use so pictures to show you what I love so much. I'm still working on finding words.

barcelona a deux

We feel a little like this around here. Last week of summer vacay. A little sad, a little nervous, a little excited. Probably, what with me easing back into work and the whole end of summer bit, I should have taken a wee bit o' a blog break, but here I am and here we are.

In lieu of a real post, I'll show you Barcelona II, or "what I wore to lunch today." Elizabeth, it reminds me so much of the fabric of your Barcelona. I got a kick out of that. As I crank these out, I'm spending an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to get some darker, perhaps slightly shorter versions to wear with tights this fall and winter. I'm really good without tights through October here in coastal VA, but I always struggle with foot and sock-wear at the start of fall. Clearly this year is no different. I'd appreciate any suggestions, if you have them.

Thanks much to all of you who commented on Callum's post of yesterday. He fairly glowed with excitement as each comment came in.

Ummm, well, okaaay...she said, scanning the room an idea of something to say. I guess that's it! 'Bye!

It's Callum

Hi, it's me again. Callum. Lucy and I like to play together a lot. She likes my Xbox, but today I'm going to give her an ice cube instead. We call them ghosts. That's because they disappear. I am doing a slide show of giving Lucy a ghost.

The freezer is where we have the ghosts. We have tons of them, but I am just going to give her one today.

Those white things are the ghosts.

Here I am reaching for a ghost. It feels cold and like it will stick to your fingers.

Okay, this is the ghost and I'm getting ready to throw it to Lucy.

Even though she looks confused, she likes ghosts. She doesn't know what I'm going to throw to her.

The ghost is the blur, and Lucy closes her eyes because it goes past her so fast. She bolts for it and starts chewing on it before it disappears. I won't see you for a long time or I might see you on the weekends because school is starting for me on Tuesday.

Bye! I hope I see you again. Love Callum. (love Lucy too.)

knitwit

I'm dribbling out the knitting FOs...slowly but surely. Inside that fun package are these:

A pair of socks for Callum's Second Grade Teacher. Second Grade. Can't even believe it. As my Grandma Charlotte wouldn say, "man o day."

And since I seem to be sitting through hours of faculty meetings (including a four hour CPR training), I'm working on these:

A pair of socks for baby Alex who made his appearance on Saturday. I'm banking on the fact that his mom (now of two!) won't have a ton of time to be tooling around in the Blue Rain Room!