Excuses - I haz them!

I've been busy.  I haven't felt like it.  It was my birthday.   Lazy.   Cold.  Whatever.
I missed the chance to take pictures at the Pond Hockey Tournament.  Heard it was a success though.
Saturday my darling daughter, Princess Kitty, took me to Redwing for the afternoon.   A friend of hers moved down there and he's working in a lovely salon across from the St. James.   They close at 1:00 on Saturday, so we had the shop to ourselves.  Princess Kitty brought in lunch for the three of us, and there was wine, and hair cuts and color, and catching up with Andy, and it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.  When we got home, Catman had a pot roast dinner ready.  

On Tuesday, I was still celebrating said birthday.  My oldest friend Linda, not in age, but in years I've known her, took me out to dinner.   We have never not known each other.  We were neighbors growing up, our parents were friends, our brothers were best buds.   We could walk into each other's houses without knocking.   We had sleepovers constantly.  When one of us had a babysitting job the other usually came with for company.   I was invited up to her cabin most weekends.   Her mom was a second mom to me, and my mom to her.   Sometimes we fought like sisters, but not often.  That was usually only when we liked the same boy.   We lost each other for awhile in our mid twenties and didn't really get back together until our late thirties or early forties, after the kids were a bit older and it was easier to go out now and then.   We've been in the habit of taking each other out for our birthdays, mine in January, hers in April, for a long time now.    We had her son confused when he was younger.   We had already gone out for each of our birthdays, but then went out one night just because.  Anthony wanted to know how many birthdays each of us had a year.   Apparently he thought that was the only reason we could go out to dinner together.     Thank you again, Linda.  It was a lovely evening and I am very blessed to have you for my friend!

I've been working on my knitting quite a bit also.  I'm waiting for a yarn delivery.  I was running short on the sweater I'm working on, but was able to order some more in the same dye lot.  I was worried.  This is the third sweater I've started with this yarn, and the first of the three I've actually loved.  I thought I could make it a little shorter, change a couple of little things and come out okay with the yarn, but I was wrong.  It just wasn't going to work out.  I was sad about it because I loved the pattern with this yarn, so I was thrilled that I was able to find more.    I need to work a little faster on the socks for my niece also.  They are her Christmas present after all!

I did get to the lake for a little bit today.  Catman said he saw some people trying to get a giant kite up in the air, so we walked over to check it out.    It was just laying on the ice, but I didn't even get a picture of that.  I took three shots and then my camera told me the batteries were dead.   They haven't been in there that long!!!  And, they weren't really dead.  When I got home, it was working fine again.  The three shots aren't my best, but it's all I have right now.    Here goes..........

Another downed tree.  I love how they're trapped in the ice all winter.  They add so much character to the shoreline.   Growing up, everything was perfectly manicured along the shoreline.  A wall runs most of the way around and grass ran up to the wall, and all the trees were trimmed.  But now the Park Board has been "naturalizing" the lake.   Downed trees stay.  Wild grasses grow everywhere.  Lots of habitat for the wildlife.  Some of it I like, but in some areas it's hard to see the lake and it looks a bit messy.  

As usual, there were a lot of ice fishermen & fisherwomen out, but today most of them were on the open ice.  Very few portable shelters.  It got up in the low 40's today - who needs an ice house!

I only got one picture of this fellow before my camera quit.   There have been quite a few different sculptures around the lake over the last couple of years.  This one, now a unicorn, was originally a stag.   It is made out of old motorcycle gas tanks and other parts.  The original stag's head had great antlers made out of sets of hand brakes.  Unfortunately, someone decapitated it.   But, the artist made a new head - a unicorn this time.    I like the bike pedal ears.

That's it for now.  Time to knit.