internetters II

One of my favorite things online is my 7days flickr group. Four times a year, we each take a self-portrait every day for a week, upload it to the group on flickr, and comment away. It's amazing how much you find out about a person and their lives in 7days. I first found the group through Elaine, then met Bethany there, got to know Bonnie better... basically, the 7days group is the bellybutton of the internet. (And no, there's no fuzz in there.)
Sarah is another friend I met on 7days. Because we're friends on facebook, I knew that Sarah and her lovely family were on vacation somewhere close-by. We messaged back and forth and decided to meet at a shopping center for lunch when they were on their way back home.

We had a lovely lunch together with shared food (someone needs to teach my child not to steal chips from others' plates!) and easy conversation. Afterwards, we braved the triple-digit heat (note the red, red cheeks in the photo) to let the boys run around by a fountain (minimal splashing included) and to take a group photo. We exchanged sweaty hugs and I promised to stop by if I (once again) found myself in Sarah's home town, then we all high-tailed it to our airconditioned cars and got on our respective ways home. Good times!

note to self

big one, originally uploaded by girlwithgreencard and fabric!.

Only plant ONE zucchini plant next summer.

I knitted that!

I knitted that!, originally uploaded by girlwithgreencard and fabric!.

A while ago, I found a knitting pattern online for a hat with a lace pattern. I had never knitted lace before, but my twitter peeps pledged their support and I dove right in. Turns out that it wasn't all that difficult! Go, me!

internetters I

Bonnie and I have been trying (in vain) to meet in person for well over a year, and it finally, FINALLY worked out! I'm co-leading the local chapter of the Holistic Moms Network, and when we decided to hold our July meeting as an idea-share panel discussion about homeschooling, I realized that here was my chance! Bonnie homeschools, so I decided to invite her. And would you know it? She was available that day, she was happy to make the drive up, NOBODY GOT SICK RIGHT BEFORE, and we actually met. Face to face, no computers required.
We hung out and played and went to Trader Joe's and went to our meeting and had story time before going to bed and had pancakes for breakfast (gluten free! hand-made! by me! from a mix!) and played some more and went to a park and had In-N-Out for lunch and it was lovely. The only way to increase the loveliness of it all would have been to knock about 20 or so degrees of the crazy temperatures (ironically (or not really, just poorly timedly), it cooled down the day after Bonnie left - right back to the comfy low 80s we'd been in before it freakishly hit 100) and skip the issues we had with the wading pool at our park. You see, there are a few parks with wading pools in my city. While school is out for the summer, the wading pools are manned by a lifeguard for two hours each weekday, so kids up to age 5 can play and cool down. During the last two summers, I'd noticed older kids in the pools, so I didn't think we'd have an issue bringing a child over 5... but unfortunately, the lifeguard bluntly told M that she was too old and wouldn't be allowed into the pool. While this put a real damper on our mood, I was pretty impressed with how well M handled things. She cried and was upset, but she was okay with letting the boys play for a short while. When we left, all of us walked right through the middle of the pool. HA!

(this photo is totally stolen from Bonnie's flickr stream)

It was fun to meet a new old friend. I'm looking forward to the next time!
(Also: Look! Bonnie blogged about this last month, when it actually happened! Amazing.)

on hold

hello, is this the squash hotline?, originally uploaded by girlwithgreencard and fabric!.

Here's hoping that a cute photo of an adorable toddler doing something silly will tide you over until I scrape together enough brain power to deliver some actual content. Let me know if it worked.