Knitting for Kansas

I am a faithful reader of Criquette's blog, and she is having a contest for a good cause. It turns out that over at Sugar Bunny Boulevard, a very nice blogger and knitter is collecting 8" bias-knit (or crocheted) squares which will be assembled into afghans for the families in Greensburg, KS whose lives have been disrupted (to say the very least) by tornados. Click on Sugar Bunny's link, and all of the information is right there on her sidebar. Criquette is giving away some lovely merino yarn to two lucky knitters who send squares to Sugar Bunny for the afghans.

The yarn of choice is worsted weight, wool or wool-blend, so you know what that means....shopping trip! All I have is sock yarn, or baby yarn, so I though I would find something from the new needlework shop that hosted WWKIP day last weekend, but they don't carry any yarn...yet. So, a trip to Michael's yielded this:

Ooooh, pretty. I started (and almost finished) my first square last night while watching The Deadliest Catch. Yes, vegetarian that I am, I enjoy witnessing thousands of little crabby lives being lost each week on the television show. Hey, I was pinched by one of those suckers once, and it hurt, so it's kind of like getting revenge -- a naughty pleasure.

Speaking of naughty, take a look at who has been hanging around by the back gate, in full view of the dogs if they should happen to look out the back door:

Yes, that's Joey, sitting there and staring in the house until you bring him some food.

That little manipulator is now getting three cans of food a day. Three. I think that's a little excessive, but he insists. If Emma sees him, she stands still as a statue at the door and "wills" him to go away. Not Tara. She will stand there and howl like some unearthly creature. I have never heard sounds like that come from a dog. It's a cross between a beagle, an amorous cat, and the devil. It's kind of like OOOOWWWWW, EEEEEOOOOOWWWW, OOOOOOO, OOOOOOO, OOOOWWWWW. Joey just sits there and looks at Tara like she has lost her mind.

Take a look at these visitors to the museum this afternoon:

Sorry guys, tickets required to enter here. Astute blog readers, who have really good eyesight, are glass geeks, and are familiar with the glass made in Vineland, New Jersey between 1924 and 1931 will notice the display of Durand Art Glass in the window. Anybody? Anybody? I didn't think so.

These ducks, and others like them, have been residents here for many years. They are a cross between a Muscovy and who knows what else. Here are a few quotes from Wikipedia:

• This species, like the Mallard, does not form stable pairs, and will mate with related birds.
• When Muscovies mate with other species of ducks the offspring are called mules.
• Muscovies will mate in the water or on land.

Does that make these ducks sound like the sluts of the bird world, or what?