My Life in Pictures

I have a favorite old picture of my grandmother and me , and was particularly taken with today's shot of me teaching Maya to knit.* It was my grandmother who taught me to knit, so I was pleased with the symmetry of the two pictures, with the addition of Owen, who was very interested in the whole process. Although disinclined to join, he was free with his praise of Maya's accomplishments, reminding me of another picture of Will playing a video game while Peter looked on with an expression and posture very like Owen's. Life has a way of coming full circle.

The kids' main mission was to see Blake, who fulfilled his role as "therapy" dog almost as soon as Dana arrived with him, snuggling with Maya and Owen who took turns holding him on their laps. He has a way of going boneless as soon as he lies down, making him very appealing, and very heavy…24 pounds of dead weight. Standing up from a chair without disturbing  a sleeping puppy in one's lap requires new levels of fitness in aging quadriceps.

Dinner was a chaotic affair with Jim helping the kids make their own pizza, a fun project involving vats and clouds of flour, which I later found Dana removing from our new bar stools with a toothpick, John cooking corned beef and cabbage, and three dogs trolling the floor at our feet for dropped morsels. Blake is not supposed to eat off the ground/floor, but we have already decided that with a labrador, no matter how well trained, that is a lost cause.

Everyone has gone home now, and suddenly it seems very quiet as OilMan and Ozzie snooze and I write. But Blake will arrive tomorrow morning at 7:45 and the fun begins….

*I'm not sure who took the picture which turned up in my camera, but I believe it was Dana, since OilMan had his own camera out for a picture of the sunrise.