Progress with the Tag-a-Long!

I have finally worked up to biking to and from Miss Elsie's school with her on the back of the Tag-a-Long. I have no idea what the distance is.. probably around a mile one way. I can't quite make it up the incline in front of the house, but I can get within a block. We are going to give it another go tomorrow. My goal is to be able to do the whole trip in grand style (as in NOT pushing the bike... at all) by the time school starts on September 8. Will keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, here is a little visitor that came and peeked through my open window in my studio where I was working....



He came around 10 minutes later for another visit. Apparently I wasn't very interesting... he didn't stay long.

Good Things

Today I went to Levi's to replace my mostly-holes-and-not-much-denim capris with some new ones. Of course standing there under the over head lighting and fun house mirror was not good for my body image. I took the summer off from ballet and although the scale hasn't changed, my body make-up has... as in less lean muscle and more fullness about the general hip area. Some sort of physical exercise is drastically needed so I decided the get out the Tag-a-Long (tandem bike attachment for the offspring) for my bike so Miss Elsie and I could ride together. I couldn't find the bike pump and the tires were completely flat since they haven't been ridden in 6 years- give or take, so off I went to Fred Meyer to buy a new pump. Came back, the bike pump did not fit the valve stems on my bike, but did fit the stems on the Tag-A-Long which in the long run really didn't matter since the bike pump was broken anyway. Back to Fred Meyer to return the first bike pump and buy a different one that would accommodate both stem types. Now we are about 1 hour into the project, and I have all the tires pumped back up, and spend the next 1-1/2 taking parts off my bike and trying to get the Tag-a-Long bushing/bracket onto my bike.... eventually resorting to the rubber mallet persuader. Finally I had success and put on my helmet, loaded up Miss Elsie, and made it 4 blocks and was so winded and out of shape... we called it an evening.... anyway... it's something to build up to.

Here some other lovely things from the end of the summer..

My 100% cotton crochet trim that I bought 3 years ago at Fabric Depot's outdoor sale. It has all been pre-washed (this stuff really SHRINKS), and ironed and rolled on a card.



Coffee filter art at Anthropologie... they really do the most amazing display work there....



In-and-Out Burger from our trip to Disneyland... enough said...


And the sushi platter from Saburo's... the Temple to Sushi here in Portland....



My garden is just not that dazzling this year... partly due to the strange weather... partly due to the continuing lack of sun in our backyard (the neighborhood trees keep growing... as trees do)... and partly due to me not being that diligent this spring because of allergies. I am developing a new strategy for next year that involves moving A LOT of plants around and some hard pruning... work will commence this fall.

Another dress and some gardening

Miss E gets another new dress. This one is remade from a skirt that belonged to my Mother-In-Law and was passed down a few times. We started with this...



... and wound up with this....



It has this great scalloped hem. The belt is the spouse's from when he was a little boy.



Gardening is coming along. Somethings are a little behind due to me not getting my plants planted early enough. But we have some green tomatoes and the basil is growing like mad! All were started from seed.




The pepper experiment out front is going well. I've tried growing peppers in the back several times and they either never fruit or don't ripen. So this year I put them in pots out front on the cement. They get lots of hot, hot sun and I can water them easily. Then they get reflected heat from the cement the rest of the evening and night. These were also grown from seed.




Very exiting!