Month: April 2012

Look Who’s One!

Karen2 Comments
The Smartest Baby in the World* is one years old today! He had a big party Saturday afternoon to celebrate.  There were cupcakes:
 
There were so! many! colors! on the gift bags:
And there was the toy piano to try out: 
It’s incredible to think that in 36 weeks you can grow a brand new human, and that in 52 more you can go from this: 
To this (yes, he’s walking):
Happy birthday, Skyler!
*Totally un-biased auntie opinion.

Friday Unrelated Information

Karen1 Comment
1. This weekend, I have tickets to the Utah Symphony for the first time in a couple of years. (I used to be there nearly every week back in the days of student tickets.) I hear good things about the orchestra under the new music director.
2. I also have Skyler’s first birthday party to attend on Saturday afternoon. I bought him a toy piano, since aunties get to force their interests on their nephews.
 
My brother is going to love hearing “PLINK PLONK PLINKPLINK” all day, every day. 

Goose On The Roof

Karen2 Comments
Toby saw something on the roof the other morning, and I assumed it was one of the pigeons that help themselves to the seed in the flat feeder and drive him bonkers. 
No, it was a goose, just hanging out on the roof, driving Toby extra bonkers. He’d never seen such a big bird!

Tuesday Project Roundup: There Are No Sewing Machines In Campgrounds

Karen1 Comment
Way back before the extravaganza that is April (Regular Easter! Greek Easter! Mom’s birthday! Camping! And Skyler’s birthday coming up!), I decided on my next project. I even got the pattern ready and did a quick test sew of the body to check the fit before I cut into my fancy Liberty fabric. 
Nothing has happened since then, though. But something could happen Saturday morning before Skyler’s party. I’ll let you know.

Camping!

Karen1 Comment
For the weekend, I went and slept in a tent for the first time in about five years. The trip was to Capitol Reef, where I’d never been, and that is some lovely country.
There were pictures taken from passenger windows: 
There were pictures taken from the back:
There were side canyons:
There were views to admire:
There were trails that turned out much longer than we thought they’d be: 
There were miles to go before we slept: 
There was golden desert light:
Needless to say, it was a good weekend for my inner hippie.

Grammar Wednesday #5

Karen2 Comments

This one was another request (which makes me so happy): How can you tell when to use drink, drank, or drunk? Or sink, sank, or sunk?

Drink and sink are pretty easy, since they’re in the present tense. (I’m pretty sure nobody gets confused about saying “Drink up!”) But drank and drunk and sank and sunk are both past tense verbs, so how can you tell which one to use?

Drank and sank are simple past tense verbs: “The ship sank.” “I drank too much last night.” But drunk and sunk are a past participle, so they need a helping verb–no, don’t tune out yet, that just means drunk and sunk always appear with a form of “have”: “They have drunk my potion!” “The submarine has been sunk by the spies.”

So here’s my trick: Drunk and sunk have a U in them. Have has a V in it. U and V come right next to each other in the alphabet. S0 use that trick to remember that drunk and sunk should always appear with have.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Accessories

Karen1 Comment

I made my mom a scarf for her birthday. She’s really hard to buy for and making her something requires that she like it (it’s a Mom Law), so it seemed like a good idea. Besides, accessories are a pretty flexible gift.

I used two-thirds of the Liberty prints from last week and followed this tutorial, just making the square a little smaller. There was a lot of hand sewing to finish but it went pretty quickly.